[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT PARITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RAMSTAD. Madam Speaker, ``Minnesota nice'' took a hard hit last 
week. Within a few blocks of downtown Minneapolis, the body of a 77-
year-old woman was found wrapped in plastic, stuffed in a cardboard box 
in a bedroom closet of her own apartment.
  Why was ``Miss Annie,'' as her friends and the small children she 
befriended in the neighborhood called her, so cavalierly and 
heartlessly murdered and her body left to rot? Apparently, she had 
become a mere inconvenience to the drug users and dealers who had 
literally commandeered her apartment. And as I found out from nearby 
residents, such hostage takeovers are not uncommon in the Phillips 
neighborhood of Minneapolis.
  During a tour last week at the invitation of frustrated victims of 
the crime and drug epidemic in this area of our community, neighborhood 
residents told me of their constant fears living in crack-infested 
areas where drug dealers and violence dominate their daily lives.
  Boarded up, abandoned buildings; drug dealers and crack houses on 
every block; and gang members and prostitutes readily adapting to the 
environment. As the exodus of community stakeholders, landlords, small 
business people and law-abiding residents continues, prospects for a 
better future dwindle.
  Madam Speaker, do not tell the residents of the Phillips neighborhood 
in Minneapolis that crime statistics are down. They are literally 
trapped in the vicious cycle of crime and drugs that has gripped 
America for too long. As person after person after person told me last 
week in this neighborhood where Miss Annie was savagely murdered, these 
people are literally without hope.
  Madam Speaker, no child, no neighborhood, and no community in America 
should be without hope. If we are truly serious about addressing the 
crime and drug epidemic in America, we must first acknowledge what 
every cop, every treatment professional, and every corrections person 
in America knows: 80 percent of all crimes are tied to drugs and/or 
alcohol addiction. 26 million Americans are addicted to drugs or 
alcohol. One hundred fifty thousand Americans died last year from 
chemical addiction. Eighty percent of the 1.4 million men and women in 
American prisons tonight are there because of drugs and/or alcohol. 
They are addicts.
  Madam Speaker, Congress must provide a comprehensive strategy to 
address the crime and drug epidemic in America. We need to provide 
consequences for criminals and treatment for alcoholics and addicts. We 
need to go after the 7 percent of the violent criminals who are 
committing 70 percent of the violent crimes and lock them up. But we 
also need to break the cycle of chemical dependency that is causing the 
bulk of criminal behavior in America.
  Of the 26 million American alcoholics and addicts, approximately 16 
million of them are covered by health insurance plans. But only 2 
percent of them, of this 16 million who had health insurance, are 
getting treatment for their addiction.
  As the recent five-part Public Television documentary by Bill Moyers 
pointed out, it is time to put chemical dependency treatment on par 
with other diseases. It is time to knock down the barriers to chemical 
dependency treatment created by certain health insurers that 
discriminate against alcoholics and addicts. It is time to treat 
chemical dependency as the disease that it is, as the disease that it 
has been recognized to be by the American Medical Association since 
1956. It is time to provide access to treatment to deal with America's 
number one public health and public safety problem.
  Senator Wellstone and I have introduced the Substance Abuse Treatment 
Parity Act to provide equal access to chemical dependency treatment 
with treatment for other diseases covered by health plans. As a 
recovering alcoholic myself, Madam Speaker, I know firsthand the value 
of treatment. As someone who stays close to other recovering people and 
chemical dependency professionals in Minnesota and across the country, 
I have been alarmed by the dwindling access to treatment for people who 
need help. The current system either blocks access for people who are 
chemically dependent or extremely limits their treatment experience.
  Providing access to treatment is not only the right thing to do, but 
the cost-effective thing to do. All the actuarial studies, all the 
empirical evidence show that treatment parity will actually save money 
in the long run.
  Providing treatment for alcoholics and addicts covered by health 
insurance will raise premiums in the worst case scenario by one-half of 
1 percent. In other words, for $1.35 per month, or the cost of a cup of 
coffee, we can treat 16 million chemically addicted persons in our 
country. For every dollar we invest in treatment, we will save $7 in 
costs down the road.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join the 56 other Members of 
the House who have already cosponsored H.R. 2409. The people of America 
cannot afford to wait any longer.

                          ____________________