Political Quotes

“Reforming our mental health system has been an active priority of mine. That's why I supported legislation increasing access to the mental health care, including the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, the Excellence in Mental Health Act, and the Affordable Care Act. Among its provisions, the Affordable Care Act expanded mental health parity protections by including mental health coverage as one of ten Essential Health Benefit categories. The ACA also ended insurers' ability to refuse to cover someone due to a pre-existing condition. Prior to the ACA, insurers often declined to cover someone who had diagnoses of mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and anorexia. This was no accident, and these important mental health reforms were yet another reason I supported the ACA. The amended version of H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act as reported out of Committee on the Energy and Commerce, takes another meaningful step towards reforming our mental health system by strengthening enforcement of mental health parity requirements, increasing access to community-based treatment, and growing the mental health workforce. I am pleased to support this bipartisan legislation, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to continue to improve the nation's mental health system. {time} 1445 The SPEAKER pro tempore.…”