I thank my friend and colleague from Rhode Island for yielding, and I thank him for his outstanding leadership as co-Chair with me of the Addiction Treatment and Recovery Caucus, for his outstanding leadership on the parity legislation,…
I thank my friend and colleague from Rhode Island for yielding, and I thank him for his outstanding leadership as co-Chair with me of the Addiction Treatment and Recovery Caucus, for his outstanding leadership on the parity legislation, and every other piece of legislation dealing with mental illness and addiction.
I also want to thank my friend and colleague from Rhode Island for the inspiration he has been to literally hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans because of his own honesty, candor, because of the example he has been. By going public with his own story, he has impacted the lives of countless Americans.
Mr. Speaker, as my friend from Rhode Island knows, and many of my friends here know, on July 31, 1981, I woke up in a jail cell in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, under arrest from my last alcoholic blackout as a result of my last alcoholic episode. I had abused alcohol for 12 long and painful years, and I was under arrest when I woke up that morning for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and failure to vacate the premises.
I am alive and sober today only because of access to treatment that I had, like other Members of Congress. Like my friend from Rhode Island, we had access to treatment as well as the grace of God and the support of many other recovering people, over the last 26 years in my case.
I'm living proof, as is my friend from Rhode Island, that treatment works and recovery is real. But too many people don't have that access to treatment. It's a national disgrace that 270,000 Americans were denied access to treatment last year for their addiction, people who had admitted their powerlessness over chemicals, and the treatment doors were slammed shut because the insurance companies said, No, we're not going to cover you in treatment, despite the fact that the policy said treatment shall be provided.
It's a national tragedy, Madam Speaker, that 150,000 of our fellow Americans died last year as a direct result of chemical addiction. Thirty thousand Americans committed suicide from their depression last year alone.
And it's a national crisis that untreated addiction and mental illness cost our country, our economy, $550 billion last year alone.
And think of the costs that can't be measured in dollars and cents. Think of the human suffering, the broken families, the shattered dreams, the ruined careers, the destroyed lives. The statistics are so staggering that sometimes we forget there's a tragic human story behind every figure, as Representative Kennedy and I heard in those 14 field hearings we conducted throughout the Nation.
Madam Speaker, let me now share a couple of those stories.
In my home State of Minnesota, the second hearing we held, Anna Westin, was a young woman who suffered from anorexia for several years, and her mother, Kitty, talked about how their insurance company, the family's insurance company, refused to cover the inpatient treatment that Anna Westin desperately needed. Anna became distraught at being a financial burden on her parents and committed suicide, took her own life.
I want to thank Anna's mother, Kitty Westin. She has created the Anna Westin Foundation to help other young people struggling with eating disorders. And Kitty Westin has been a tireless advocate for expanding access to treatment. But her daughter didn't need to die had the insurance company done the right thing, the cost-effective thing, and covered that inpatient treatment that Anna Westin needed so badly.
We also heard horror story after horror story as a result of health plans discriminating against people with chemical addiction and mental illness.
We heard from Steve Winter, a close personal friend of ours because of these hearings. He traveled in his wheelchair to at least half of those field hearings. Steve tells the most compelling story I've ever heard. When he was a teenager, he woke up one morning and his back was stinging. He felt a stinging sensation. He stumbled downstairs to breakfast and he realized that blood was streaming from his back. He put his hand back there to his back, lower back, and had a handful of blood. Then his mother came into the kitchen, and her voice said, your sister is in heaven, and now you and I are going to join her. His mother was pointing a gun at him. Fortunately, Steve was able to talk his mother into putting the gun down after she had killed his sister and critically injured him, causing him to be a paraplegic for the rest of his life. But as Steve said, My mother didn't shoot my sister and me; her mental illness did. It was the family's insurance company who is to blame for stopping the coverage of his mother's drugs for schizophrenia. That's what caused Steve to lose the use of his legs for the rest of his life and his sister to be shot to death.
Clearly, Madam Speaker, there are very few families in America who haven't been touched in some way by mental illness or addiction. And I know my colleague's going to share some of those stories, but let me just say that it's time to end the discrimination against people suffering the ravages of mental illness and chemical addiction. It's time to end the higher copayments, higher deductibles, the out-of- pocket costs and limited treatment stays. It's time to end those discriminatory barriers that don't exist for other physical diseases. It's time to treat mental illness and chemical addiction under the same rules as physical illnesses. After all, it was 1946 when the American Medical Association categorized addiction as a disease. Anybody from the Flat Earth Society who still thinks it's a moral failing, I suggest they consult the American Medical Association, our Nation's doctors, who, as long ago as 1956, realized addiction is a disease.
As my colleague from Rhode Island said, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act will give Americans suffering from addiction greater access to treatment by prohibiting health insurers from placing discriminatory restrictions on treatment. In other words, it will end the discrimination against people in health plans
who need treatment for mental illness or chemical addiction, plain and simple.
Madam Speaker, expanding access to treatment is not only the right thing to do, it's also the cost-effective thing to do. We've got all the empirical data in the world, all the actuarial studies in the world to prove that equity for mental health and addiction treatment will save billions of dollars nationally while not raising premiums more than 2/10 of 1 percent, and that's according to an exhaustive study by the Congressional Budget Office.
In other words, Madam Speaker, for less than the price of a cheap cup of coffee per month, one cheap cup of coffee per month, 16 million people in health plans could receive treatment for their chemical addiction and millions more for mental illness.
It's also well documented that every dollar spent on treatment saves up to $12 in health care and criminal justice costs alone. People like Mr. Kennedy and I, who have been treated, our health care costs are 100 percent less, 100 percent less than people with an addiction or mental illness whose disease has not been treated; 100 percent less in terms of health care costs alone.
This landmark legislation that Representative Kennedy and I have been working on for 10 years has 273 House sponsors, 273 of you here in the House, cosponsors. It was passed with strong bipartisan majorities in two subcommittees, three full committees in the House.
Let me say, Madam Speaker, the bottom line now, we must not go home this year without enacting mental health parity into law. Let me repeat that. We must not go home this year, Congress must not leave without enacting mental health parity into law. Tens of millions of Americans suffering the ravages of mental illness, chemical addiction, can't afford to wait any longer.
Madam Speaker, before I yield back to my friend from Rhode Island, let me just thank him, again, for his incredible leadership, for his outstanding work, for his passion for people in need, people suffering from mental illness and chemical addiction, and for the example he is to millions of Americans.
I want to conclude, Madam Speaker, by saying that ending discrimination against people suffering from addiction or mental illness is not just another public policy issue. It's a matter of life or death. It's a life-or-death issue for millions of Americans suffering the ravages of mental illness and chemical addiction.
Let me conclude by repeating as strongly as I can, it's time to end the discrimination against people who need treatment for mental illness and/or chemical addiction. It's time to prohibit health insurers from placing discriminatory barriers on treatment. It's time to provide greater access to treatment. It's time to pass the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, because, Madam Speaker, the American people, literally, can't afford to wait any longer for Congress to act. The American people should not have to wait any longer for Congress to deal with America's number one public health problem.
Let's keep the ball moving forward. And next week, hopefully, we'll have the best Christmas and Hanukkah present we could ever deliver to the American people; that is, treatment equity for those suffering from mental illness and chemical addiction.
Again, I thank my friend from Rhode Island.
Would the gentleman yield?
I again appreciate the gentleman's comments.
One of those troops lived not far from me in a neighboring community in Minnesota. Lance Corporal Jonathan Schultze, a brave, proud marine who had returned from combat in Iraq, went to the VA suffering from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as alcoholism. He was told that there were no beds available at the VA, and he would be number 26 on the waiting list, that he will get a call in weeks, probably several months.
Well, 4 days later, Marine Lcpl Jonathan Schultze was found in his apartment hanging, hanging from an electrical cord. Just one victim, one brave marine who didn't have to die after sacrificing so much for his country in Iraq, one brave veteran who didn't receive the mental health treatment he needed and deserved.
And I thank my friend from Rhode Island and others who supported the Veterans Health Care Act. Hopefully, that legislation that we passed and was signed by the President earlier this year will help address that problem.
I also appreciate the gentleman from Rhode Island pointing out that the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Treatment Equity Act only addresses one aspect of the problem here, people who are being discriminated against in health plans. We also need to make sure our troops are getting the adequate mental health care that they need and deserve; our veterans, across the board, from all wars, are getting the treatment that they need and deserve; our Medicare seniors, you look at the rates as people are aging with our aging population, so is the incidence among people over 65, the incidence of alcoholism and drug addiction. We need to address the Medicare population as well.
The Medicaid population, there are roughly 26 million addicts and alcoholics in this country according to SAMPHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. About 16 million of the 26 million alcoholics and addicts are in health plans, which means that at least 10 million are either in Medicaid or have no insurance whatsoever. We've got to address that population as well.
And, finally, as the gentleman from Rhode Island knows well, 82 percent of the people in prisons and jails in the United States are there directly or indirectly because of mental illness and/or addiction, and we're not treating, in our prisons and jails, we're not treating these problems, the underlying cause. And 99 percent of prisoners are going to get out some day, about one percent being capital offenders who presumably will be executed or will be staying there for the rest of their life without parole.
Will the gentleman yield?
Ironically, when President Nixon declared the war on drugs, he directed 70 percent of the funding to treatment, prevention and education, 30 percent to the supply side. In other words, 70 percent to demand side, to reduce the demand for drugs, and 30 percent for law enforcement, proper adjudication and interdiction efforts. Well, today those funding priorities have been reversed, and we simply aren't spending our resources wisely. We are not doing enough on the demand side of the equation.
That's why over the last decade and a half the treatment beds in America have disappeared. They're gone. Insurance companies aren't reimbursing. That's why, even more alarming, 60 percent of the adolescent treatment beds have disappeared over the last decade. We need to reverse those priorities.
I remember visiting with President Clinton and several other Members of Congress and Mexican President, President Salinas, former President Salinas, and he said, until you Americans curb your insatiable demand for drugs, we're never going to be able to address the supply-side problem, the flow of drugs from Central and South America through Mexico into the United States.
So the gentleman from Rhode Island is absolutely correct: we need to address the demand side. We need to spend more of our resources on treatment, education, and prevention.
Will the gentleman yield?
I'd just like to conclude my portion, Mr. Speaker, by quoting from one of our key advisers on this legislation, somebody who's a true expert, Navy Captain Medical Dr. Ron Smith, who is former chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center and who's worked in chemical dependency in the field of treatment for dozens of years.
And Dr. Smith, when he testified at a hearing several years ago, said every time you treat a person for addiction or mental illness, you're really helping seven people: their siblings, spouse, significant others, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts and others close to the addicted or mentally ill person. Why? Because these are family diseases that affect the entire family. And Dr. Smith went on to say at that hearing that the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Equity Act has the potential to favorably impact more American people than any other law passed by Congress since Social Security and Medicare; that this bill, to provide treatment, to provide equity in treatment for mental health and addiction has the potential to help more American people than any law passed by Congress since Social Security and Medicare.
Mr. Speaker, we can't afford not to pass this bill next week, the final week of this year of Congress. This is a historic opportunity for the Congress; and I know, I know in my heart that the President will sign the bill if it gets to his desk.
Again, I urge all Americans who have an interest in this life-or- death issue to e-mail, call your Congress Member, your Senators in the next several days, urge them to pass the Paul Wellstone Mental Health Parity Act. It is absolutely essential that we get it done now.
I thank the gentleman from Rhode Island for yielding.