Don Nickles: “Let me just complete my response. I think I will answer my colleague's statement. The Senator from Minnesota says if we…”

“Let me just complete my response. I think I will answer my colleague's statement. The Senator from Minnesota says if we do not fund this money we are jeopardizing mental parity enforcement, and he is absolutely wrong-- absolutely wrong. I want to make sure people understand it. The reason why Kassebaum-Kennedy had a lot of support is because it provided major reforms to improve access and portability, to make sure if somebody loses insurance in a group plan they can have access to coverage in an individual plan. I supported that. But we left it under State regulation. We gave States the authority to regulate this. Mr. President, 45 States have stepped forward. We passed that bill 20 months ago. The bill became effective, I tell my colleague, in January of this year. It has only been in effect for 2 rac{1}{2} months. 45 States now comply; 45 States have done what we asked them to do. They have amended their State laws, because States regulate insurance. I know a lot of people in this body would like the Federal Government to regulate all insurance, but a lot of us said no, we should keep that under State control, we should let the States do it. We are not insurance commissioners. And needs may vary from State to State. Some people wanted to nationalize it. They have not been successful. They were not successful when they passed the so-called Kennedy-Kassebaum legislation in federalizing insurance. What the bill did say is: States, make these changes.”