[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19572-19573]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               MENTAL HEALTH PARITY IN HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. KENNEDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, the health care bill that we are now 
considering contains a very important item, and that is mental health 
parity, requiring all health insurance plans to treat mental illness 
and addiction on the same grounds as other physical illnesses. If we 
are to do this and also to

[[Page 19573]]

include prevention, it's important that we have the appropriate 
education and medical education for all doctors so that they may be 
able to properly screen and treat all patients. Irrespective of their 
specialties in some other areas, doctors ought to be able to identify 
and to treat, at least in the primary care setting, mental health 
challenges before referring them to specialists. This has been an issue 
within the Institute of Medicine report, and I encourage my colleagues 
to support this in a section for medical education and training within 
the base of the bill.

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