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Wellstone Act passage promised this session
Each year, in the United States, 33,000 Americans with untreated depression take their own lives. One of the late Senator Paul Wellstone?s unfulfilled passions was the plight of millions of Americans for whom the world could be seriously out of focus. The Wall Street Journal estimates that untreated depression is costing American companies about $70 billion a year in absenteeism and lost productivity, but the human cost is far higher. "And we can't even begin to totally cost out this in financial terms," Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy said in Minnesota Monday, "but there isn't a family in this country that isn't touched by mental illness." Kennedy joined Minnesota?s Jim Ramstad and Senator Amy Klobuchar in promising passage of the Paul Wellstone Mental Health/Addition Treatment Equity Act in this session of Congress. "One of the things about Paul," Klobuchar recalled, "was that he treated people the same, no matter where they were from and that's what this bill is about to elevate mental illness to the level of physical illness." The lawmakers were gathered at the Humphrey Institute on the University of Minnesota campus to hear from former mental illness sufferers and insurance company representatives. The bill, originally sponsored by Democrat Wellstone in the 1990s languished in the Republican controlled Congress without so much as a hearing. Republican Representative Jim Ramstad, an old Wellstone friend, says it is a new day. "Well, with the change in leadership, we're going to get hearings, we're going to get a vote, we're gonna pass it, we're going to send it down to the white house for the President's signature. This will become law this year." College student Marly Prunty-Lara and former Minnesota State Senator John Hottinger were among those who recounted their personal struggles with mental illness and the difficulties in finding treatment. "We were told I would have to wait 4 - 5 months before I could get an initial appointment. I did not have that long to live," said Prunty-Lara. Representatives of Minnesota Health Insurance issuers, including Medica, stated that including mental health coverage would be cost efficient. Ramstad summed up their testimony. "For every dollar that's invested in terms of insurance plans, insurance companies, we save $12 in health care costs and other costs, social costs." The goal of the Wellstone Act is to guarantee that the 53 million Americans suffering from mental illness and the 26 million Americans suffering from chemical addictions have access to prompt treatment. Representative Kennedy says the Wellstone Bill will be introduced in the Senate by his father, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Ramstad and Kennedy say they have both obtained promises from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold hearings on the bill this year.
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