Nov 21, 2008 6:56 am US/Eastern
Kennedys Meet President At White House
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
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President Bush, joined by Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minn., in a signing of the Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 at the White House.
Eric Draper-White House Photo
Sen. Edward Kennedy and other key lawmakers who championed mental health parity legislation met Thursday with President Bush at the White House for a ceremonial signing.
Kennedy, D-Mass., and his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, were part of the private Oval Office event. GOP Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota were also on hand.
"Senator Kennedy has been fighting to end this senseless discrimination for over ten years and he is so pleased that help has finally come to the one in five Americans who suffer with mental illnesses," Kennedy spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement. "The President was very warm and gracious."
The elder Kennedy, who is fighting a
malignant brain tumor, returned to work in the Senate this week for the first time since July.
After a 12-year fight, advocates won passage of a bill early last month to require insurance companies to treat mental health on an equal basis with physical illnesses. The measure was part of a $700 billion financial bailout that Bush signed soon after passage.
The Oval Office event was a ceremonial signing of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 that prohibits discriminatory restrictions on mental health and addiction treatments. Wellstone is the former Minnesota senator who championed the bill for many years before his death in a 2002 plane crash.
"Mental health parity is another stride in the long civil rights struggle to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to reach their potential," said congressman Kennedy in a statement. "For far too long, the stigma of mental illness and addiction has been used as an excuse to deny equitable insurance coverage for those biological disorders."
The issue struck a personal chord with the younger Kennedy and Ramstad, who had each battled problems with addiction. Domenici has a daughter diagnosed with atypical schizophrenia.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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