Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Medicare Mental Health Inpatient Equity Act, legislation that eliminates Medicare's arbitrary 190-day lifetime cap on inpatient services in psychiatric hospitals. This change is long overdue given the steps that Congress has taken to improve coverage of mental health services. I am pleased to be joined by Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), who has been a champion for greater access to mental health care. Left untreated, mental illnesses are some of the most disabling and destructive illnesses afflicting Americans. Unfortunately, our current mental health system is fragmented, and family members with serious mental illness all too often lack access to the care that they need. That is why I have worked consistently and vigorously to improve mental health services across the lifespan. I was an original cosponsor of the Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Parity Act, a landmark law that generally prevents group health plans and health insurance issuers that provide mental health or substance use disorder benefits from imposing less favorable benefit limitations on those benefits than on medical and surgical benefits. I was a longtime supporter of the Excellence in Mental Health Act, which increased Americans' access to community mental health and substance use treatment services through the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC).…”