Pete Domenici: “I obviously would be remiss if I did not thank Senator Wellstone for his diligence in this regard. I think the time is…”

“I obviously would be remiss if I did not thank Senator Wellstone for his diligence in this regard. I think the time is now upon us, with the overwhelming passage of an amendment last year which I sponsored along with my friend Senator Wellstone, which essentially said for the private sector, if you are going to cover people that have mental illness, you have to create some parity for the mentally ill; that is, you cannot say they have less coverage per year or less coverage for the life of the policy. That set a very big wave of movement in the country to try to establish nondiscrimination in these kinds of efforts. I think business is beginning to work its way through it. Today, we offer an amendment very similar. It says the coverage that is going to be afforded to children under this bill, if mental illness is covered, it shall be covered with the same kind of coverage that you provide for the physical illnesses. There is a escape clause of a sort that has to do with making sure we are not impeding the formation of HMOs and managed care. Nonetheless, I believe the time is right to try this one on in the country.”