Patrick J. Kennedy

Are we doing enough to combat an opioid epidemic that is tearing families apart every single day? I think that despite best efforts of many across government legislative branch and others the answer is an emphatic no.

Hearings like this one are a positive step forward, but we know that they are not enough and we know that there are conflicting messages coming out of this administration.

If Congress can spend over $50 billion to address natural disasters, it can absolutely spend just half that to address an escalating national disaster killing more than 100,000 Americans just this year!

the bottom line is--I mean, if you've read Dreamland, as I'm sure you have, you know all the factors that conspired to develop this perfect storm, and frankly, there are guilty hands all around.

Let's--it's all political will, Senator. That's the only thing that's missing.

this Milliman Report... showed a scathing report on insurance non-compliance with the Federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.

No more separate and unequal treatment. No more separate and unequal medical records and secrecy.

It should be the interest of this committee for our patriots that we enforce a Federal law that, by the way, was sponsored, widely supported by both Republicans and Democrats, that insist that payers cover these illnesses like they would…

I concur with Chairman Leahy when he said that Medicaid is the source of treatment for people with mental illness and addiction in this country, period.

If this is truly a national issue, not just a State issue, then we should approach it on a national basis.

We need to do something extraordinary, and it ain't going to be... just borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

It is a scathing indictment on the insurance industry that they are not following the very law YOU passed.