On the recordDecember 18, 2015
As Americans celebrate Christmas, millions of families will have an empty chair at the table for a relative who is lost in our failed mental health system or one of the more than 80,000 mentally ill who died this year. They suffer from a brain disease of serious mental illness, but they also suffer from Federal policies stopping them from getting treatment: Medicaid rules that say you can't see two doctors on the same day, you can't go to a psychiatric hospital with more than 16 beds, and perverse priorities of the right to be sick instead of the right to be well. Mr. Speaker, this holiday season, let us give our families a gift of hope. Members should cosponsor H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, and let compassion dictate. We must stop the suffering, stop the congressional delays, and finally take action because where there is no help, there is no hope. ____________________
