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Today Congress passed the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equity Bill. This "bipartisan legislation will end discrimination against patients seeking treatment for mental illnesses by prohibiting insurers and group health plans from imposing treatment or financial limitations when they offer mental health benefits that are more restrictive from those applied to medical and surgical services."
Speaker Pelosi, in this clip, duly notes its impact and importance. The bill will "compel insurance companies to treat mental illness the same as physical illness, given the overwhelming scientific evidence that mental illness is a disease every bit as real and serious as physical illness. This practice is often referred to as "mental health parity." "Illness of the brain must be treated like illness anywhere else in the body....there is no shame in mental illness." Pelosi notes: there are more lost work days--1.3 billion days-- from mental illness than arthritis, heart attack stroke, and cancer, combined. But there is no significant cost to insuring treatment of mental illness.... She also notes the bill's importance to returning veterans.
The Wellstone Bill, named after the late great Minnesota Senator, was sponsored by Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN), and they should be congratulated.
To me, passage of this bill after such a long circulation is proof of the good of a Democratic Congress. I know the media, the Clintons, the Obamas, and probably George Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would like us to forget we have a functioning national legislature, but we do, even if their approval rating is the pits (24%- ouch!).
A few mental health policy blogs I came across (I'm always looking for others, so please send some along):
Mental Health Notes
Mental Health America
Psych.org from the American Psychiatric Association
And read this moving account of a woman dealing with her husband's mental illness, and lack of insurance coverage.
Now it's on to the Senate. If you care about this issue, keep the pressure on. Subscribe here to a news watch and take action.
