[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21532]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRESS MUST STOP THE SUFFERING

  (Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, as Americans celebrate 
Christmas, millions of families will have an empty chair at the table 
for a relative who is lost in our failed mental health system or one of 
the more than 80,000 mentally ill who died this year.
  They suffer from a brain disease of serious mental illness, but they 
also suffer from Federal policies stopping them from getting treatment: 
Medicaid rules that say you can't see two doctors on the same day, you 
can't go to a psychiatric hospital with more than 16 beds, and perverse 
priorities of the right to be sick instead of the right to be well.
  Mr. Speaker, this holiday season, let us give our families a gift of 
hope. Members should cosponsor H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in 
Mental Health Crisis Act, and let compassion dictate. We must stop the 
suffering, stop the congressional delays, and finally take action 
because where there is no help, there is no hope.

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