Friday, October 3, 2008

Barnes not down on mental health parity

This is something I fought for when I was President of the PA Mental Health Consumers Association.




Included in the massive $700 billion bailout bill Congress passed and President Bush signed today is a bipartisan mental health parity provision that gives employees the same treatment rights for mental illness as for other physical ailments. “Congress has given hopeto the millions of Americans and their families who live with mental illness,” said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT). But last night on Fox News, the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes coldly dismissed the measure, saying “it doesn’t belong” in the bill:

BARNES: I don’t care about the mental health parity, and some of the other things that don’t belong in there. On the other hand, we have a crisis, and we need to do something.

More details on the Mental Health Parity law here.

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