[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19543]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            AMERICA'S AFFORDABLE HEALTH CHOICES ACT OF 2009

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam Speaker, this legislation, America's Affordable 
Health Choices Act of 2009, otherwise known as our health bill this 
year, will guarantee all Americans access to affordable health care 
without preexisting condition discrimination. Imagine that, getting 
health care insurance without being told that your preexisting 
condition is going to result in higher premiums, higher deductibles or 
higher copays. Imagine being able to change your job at will without 
having to worry that you're going to lose your health insurance. 
Imagine having no worry that you're going to have to exceed a lifetime 
cap. Imagine being able to know that you're going to have catastrophic 
health care coverage.
  Imagine knowing that we're going to now move in our health care 
system from a sick care system that just is the most expensive that we 
know to actually a health care system where we actually pay for 
preventive care so that we actually get health care in this country, 
not sick care; where we pay for prevention, not sick care. We don't 
have to wait until an asthmatic gets an asthma attack before we get a 
doctor to that asthma patient. We don't have to wait until a diabetic 
gets an amputation before we get that critical care. We get prevention 
and chronic care management.
  And what is so great about this legislation is that it includes full 
parity for mental health coverage. I was proud last year to author the 
Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. What it required is 
that we finally recognize that mental health and addiction equity is 
part of our health insurance system, meaning insurance companies can no 
longer discriminate if you had alcoholism or addiction or depression. 
Imagine that, we finally acknowledge that the brain is part of the 
body.
  Mental illness is a big part of our country's health care system. It 
accounts for over 50 percent of the trauma admissions in our trauma one 
centers and emergency rooms every single weekend. Suicides in our 
country exceed homicides by two to one, suicides do. And you know what, 
we don't have a mental health system in this country to speak of 
because, you know why, there's a stigma out there against mental 
illness.
  We still believe in this country that it's your fault if you have a 
brain illness. If somehow you have a lower dopamine level or seratonin 
level, it's your fault. We think you ought to pick yourself up by your 
boot straps; it's your fault. It's a moral problem.
  We forget the fact that now, even to this day, we can take brain 
scans and tell whether someone has a differing brain or not from a 
normal functioning brain. But today, we are enforcing what we know to 
be scientifically true, what the AMA said in 1955, and that alcoholism 
is a disease, that there is such a thing as brain disorders, substance 
abuse disorders, eating disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, and 
things of that nature.
  In this legislation, in this health care bill, we require parity in 
health care coverage. We say that we ought to recognize these disorders 
for what they are, and furthermore, we say we ought to have prevention. 
And even more in this legislation, we're going to say we're going to 
require medical school education to have education teaching all doctors 
to recognize this.
  That is what is important in this legislation, and I am pleased to 
ask my colleagues that they ought to support this legislation so that 
we can finally have justice for all in health care in this country.

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