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Recovery in the News
Congressman Murphy leads mental illness discussion
Av Harris
WNPR
December 4, 2007
Connecticut 5th District Congressman Chris Murphy was joined by his colleague from Rhode Island Patrick Kennedy on Monday as they led a roundtable discussion on getting equal coverage for mental illness.
In his first term in Congress, Democrat Chris Murphy has been pushing for a federal mental health parity-bill, which would require private insurance companies to cover treatments for mental illness at the same level as they do for physical ailments. Congressman Murphy says it is modeled after a bill he helped pass in Connecticut as a member of the state senate in 1999. Murphy says one of the goals of the federal bill is to take away any stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment.
"There should be no reason why people should think of a broken leg in any different way than they think of a disease related to mental illness, and mental health parity legislation gets services to people but it also starts to make people understand that we can treat mental illness just like we can treat physical illness," Murphy says.
Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy says the federal mental health parity bill has broad bipartisan support and stands a good chance of passing in Congress next year. Kennedy also says the issue is gaining greater attention due to the challenges facing veterans returning home from the Iraq war.
"Actually, our veterans needs in terms of their post traumatic disorder and so forth are really highlighting the public's interest in mental health over all, and we have invested a great deal in our veterans mental health, and frankly, I think it's the interest in our veterans' mental health that might even spur broader changes in the overall mental health system," Kennedy says.
Kennedy, the son of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, is a recovering alcoholic and addict who suffers from bipolar disorder, and as such he takes the issue of parity in mental health coverage personally.
© Copyright 2007, WNPR