House to Vote on Mental Health Parity Bill

Please call your representative and urge them to vote for this bill.
I strongly believe that DH would have been hospitalized longer, if it wasn't for his insurance. The psychiatrist in the hospital begged the insurance company to allow DH to stay, but they refused, so he came home. I believe that much of the pain we endured this past year could have been avoided if he had been able to stay long enough for the hospital to determine that his mental illness was "stable".

House To Vote On Mental Health Parity Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on mental health parity legislation named for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone that would require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both.

"I cannot emphasize enough how historic this vote will be," said Wellstone's son, David Wellstone, in a letter to activists. "For five years, I have heard promise after promise that Congress will pass mental health parity legislation in my father's honor."

Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who championed mental health parity for years, was killed in a plane crash in 2002. David Wellstone is urging people to contact House members on the eve of the vote Tuesday to rally support for the bill, called the "The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act."

In 1996, Paul Wellstone and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., won passage of a law banning plans that offer mental health coverage from setting lower annual and lifetime spending limits for mental treatments than for physical ailments.

The House legislation -- and a mental health parity bill that the Senate passed last year -- build on that by adding things like co-payments, deductibles and treatment limitations, a longtime goal of Wellstone's. But David Wellstone calls the House bill stronger.

The House bill is sponsored by Reps. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., who has battled depression, alcoholism and drug abuse, and Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., a recovering alcoholic. Ramstad plans to retire at the end of the year, but has said he wants to see the bill passed before he goes.

David Wellstone said he'll be in Washington next week to lobby for the bill.