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Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, gave the following opening statement this morning at a subcommittee markup of H.R. 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007.
"Good morning. We are here today to mark up H.R. 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. I want to thank our colleagues and the chief sponsors of HR 1424, Congressmen Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Jim Ramstad of Minnesota, for all of their hard work in seeing this bill to fruition.
"This bill represents a bipartisan effort to require parity in insurance coverage of mental health conditions and address the concerns of millions of Americans who suffer from mental illnesses but are unable to access the care they need. To date, there are 272 cosponsors of the bill, which speaks to the importance of this issue, and the cooperative work that has been done by members on both sides of the aisle.
"We know there is an urgent need for this legislation. In spite of widespread recognition that mental illness and substance abuse are treatable illnesses, there exist glaring inequities between health insurance coverage for mental health and that for other medical conditions. These inequities can have dire consequences. We have heard during field hearings and our hearing in this Subcommittee in June, about the tragedies that can result when individuals are not able to access mental health and addiction treatment services.
"And we know that these individual tragedies can have a larger societal impact that costs us all--in criminal justice spending, higher health care costs as a result of preventable emergency room visits, and lost worker productivity. During one of the field hearings that Representatives Ramstad and Kenney held across the country over the past year, it was cited that employers lose about $166 billion each year in employee productivity due to depression and alcohol use.
"We can do better simply by improving the availability of quality mental health coverage. Currently, many health insurance plans impose barriers to care, such as stricter treatment limits and higher out-of-pocket expenses on mental health benefits than on care for other illnesses. As a nation, we can no longer afford to ignore this disparity in coverage because the cost to individuals, and to society in general, is simply too high.
"However, despite the widespread support for H.R. 1424 and the concept of parity in coverage, there have been objections raised about certain provisions in this bill. I would like to say that the minority and majority have tried to work together to resolve as many of these issues as possible prior to today’s markup. In the end, we still disagree on certain provisions of the bill, but I am looking forward to having a healthy debate on these issues and moving the bill forward today.
"One issue is the standard set by the Kennedy-Ramstad bill, which requires insurers to provide coverage of all diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or DSM, a comprehensive and clinically detailed diagnostic manual based on scientific and medical criteria. I don’t understand the opposition to this provision simply because it is clear to me that there is nothing in this bill that prevents a covered plan from determining what treatment it will pay for using medical management tools. While the bill requires coverage of all diagnoses in the DSM, health plans make the final determination of whether payment is made for a specific treatment.
"Another issue revolves around the relationship between this legislation and state laws regarding parity. In my home state of New Jersey, for instance, we enacted a full parity law in 1999 that covers both individual and group health plans. Under this law, covered plans must provide full-parity mental health benefits, including: equal limits on lifetime and annual dollar limits on coverage; equal co-payments and coinsurance rates between; and equal treatment limits for inpatient and outpatient care.
"Many other states are moving on their own toward full parity as well. Twenty eight states already have comprehensive statutes that require full parity in some form, while, nine states have laws that require covered plans to provide a minimum level of mental health benefits. The Kennedy-Ramstad bill would serve as a federal floor of covered benefits, and recognizes the value of stronger state laws by not pre-empting these existing state laws with greater protections. We should preserve states' ability to provide stronger and more comprehensive mental health benefits, rather than pre-empting them with federal legislation.
"In conclusion, by putting mental health on a par with medical and surgical benefits, we will be improving the availability and affordability of healthcare for those with mental health and substance abuse conditions. This will not only reduce the pain and anguish of many of our constituents and their families who suffer from mental health and addiction diseases, but will also benefit our nation as a whole.
"Finally, I do want to mention that we have added one other bill to today’s markup that was not initially noticed last week. Today we are marking up, H.R. 1236, a bill introduced by Rep. Lacy Clay of Missouri to extend the authority of the United States Postal Service to issue a special postage stamp to support breast cancer research. Money raised through sales of the stamp would go to help fund research, in part, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"I look forward to discussion and comments on both of these bills and now recognize Mr. Deal for his opening statement."
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