[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 23752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                          MENTAL HEALTH PARITY

  (Mr. KENNEDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I want to implore my colleagues to support 
the House reform bill with respect to the mental health parity 
provisions. The mental health provisions in the House support complete 
coverage for mental illness.
  The AMA in the 1950s recognized alcoholism as a disease. In the House 
bill, we have full health care coverage for alcoholism and substance 
abuse coverage and for schizophrenia and all biological mental health 
disorders. The Senate doesn't have those strong provisions. I implore 
my colleagues to accede to the House with respect to these provisions.
  Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people 15 to 
35. It is a tragedy in this country that mental illness is the single 
leading cause of lost workdays and lost days of quality of life in this 
country.
  It's time that we treat mental illness as the physical illness that 
it is.

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