Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3192, the ``CHIP Mental Health Parity Act.'' H.R. 3192 would ensure access to mental health and substance use disorder prevention and treatment services for children under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Beginning in infancy and continuing through adolescence, children need access to mental health screening and assessment and a complete array of evidence-based therapeutic services. Around 1 in 5 children in the U.S. suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder, but only 20 to 25 percent of affected children will receive treatment. Untreated mental health and substance use disorders are associated with family dysfunction, school expulsion, poor school performance, juvenile incarceration, unemployment, and suicide. CHIP has been an essential source of children's health coverage, ensuring that families have access to high quality, affordable, pediatric health care for children in working families whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to purchase private health insurance on their own. Given the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders in children and the nationwide opioid epidemic, it is essential now more than ever that all children and adolescents enrolled in CHIP have access to mental health and substance use disorder screening and treatment. There are currently over 400,000 CHIP recipients in Texas.…”