Pete Stark: “this appropriations bill includes two important first steps toward improving health care in America-- protection for…”

“this appropriations bill includes two important first steps toward improving health care in America-- protection for mothers and newborn babies from being forced out of hospitals prematurely and better mental health insurance benefits. Yet these are the first steps in what needs to be done. Both amendments have gaping loopholes in them that we will need to fix in the next Congress. The parity for mental health caps amendment has a potentially gutting amendment offered by the senior Senator from Texas [Mr. Gramm] which says that the parity in annual or lifetime limits between mental health and physical health need not apply if it causes the cost of the health insurance plan to rise by 1 percent or more. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the cap parity amendment should only affect health insurance premiums by about 0.4 percent. A recent Coopers & Lybrand analysis says that the premium impact should not only be about 0.12 percent. But thanks to the Gramm amendment, any employer or insurer who does not want to provide this equity treatment only has to say that it will increase costs by 1 percent or more. You can drive an armored division through that loophole--and I hope the next Congress will repeal the Senator's mischievous amendment. The mental health cap parity amendment also does not include treatment for drug or alcohol addictions--even though the airwaves are filled with political ads decrying the rising level of drug use.”