Patrick Kennedy: “as of today, a bipartisan majority of the House has cosponsored the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equity Treatment Act.…”

“as of today, a bipartisan majority of the House has cosponsored the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equity Treatment Act. This marks the fifth year in a row that the majority of our colleagues have supported ending this arbitrary insurance limit on the treatment of a whole category of what this poster makes clear are neurological, physical diseases. In the last 5 years, more than 150,000 Americans have lost their lives to suicide, 90 percent of them with serious mental illness. In the last 5 years, American employers have lost over $150 billion of productivity to depression alone. That is more than the GDP of 28 different States during the same period. In the 5 years, well over 60,000 American families have been broken apart by the absence of insurance because the only way for parents to get treatment for their children is to turn the custody of those children over to the State. And, in those 5 years, Mr. Speaker, the leadership of this House and the committees of jurisdiction have yet to even give this bill an up and down vote. We need a vote on the Paul Wellstone Equity Act for mental health insurance. ____________________”