Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 24, 2005)

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Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. REGULA. I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island.

Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased that the chairman accepted an amendment that would strengthen the privacy safeguards within the Office of Information Technology to which our committee appropriated over $75 million for safeguarding information.

Medical information is so critically important as we start to put together a national infrastructure of information technology that is interoperable and that is transparent and that will allow providers to adequately provide the care that they need to, with all of the knowledge of the patient's background that they need to have, in order to make the right decisions at the point of care.

I thank the chairman for yielding to me and for supporting this amendment.

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Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Chairman, in politics there are show horses and there are work horses. This process, instead of seeking a solution, only sought headlines. We had an opportunity to make real progress and address the concerns of these tribes.

Instead of addressing this issue in a substantive manner in committee, we are once again addressing it in a political way on the floor of the House simply for political gain.

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Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. OBEY. I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island.

Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Chairman, the danger in our society now is basing policy on old stereotypes that somehow mental health and mental science is not real science.

I have here a board that shows that there is a different metabolizing in people's brains for those who have mental illness versus those who do not. We have the tools today with PET scans and MRIs to be able to diagnose brain disorders and mental illnesses, and these things are backed up by science.

The notion in this amendment that somehow mental illness is not a real illness, that mental health is not real health, and that is why in this country we continue to discriminate against these illnesses by having them pay higher copays, higher premiums, and higher deductibles than other health care costs.

What is the difference between treating an organ in the brain and diabetes and kidneys? What is the difference between treating an organ in the brain or the lungs or the heart? Nothing is different.

The fact of the matter is in our schools we ought to be looking at this. We have more people committing suicide, 10 young people a day. More youth die from suicide each year than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. All of them combined do not rank as high as the cost of suicide to our young people.

Mr. Chairman, in the next year we are going to lose 1,400 young people in our colleges and universities because of suicide. We have twice the rate of homicide as our suicide rate. For every homicide in this country, there are two suicides.

The problem here is not overtreatment, it is undertreatment. That is why I think the Paul amendment, unfortunately, continues to ascribe to the stereotypes of the past that mental illnesses are not real illnesses and therefore they should not be treated and taken care of. That is why I would ask my colleagues to please vote against the discrimination, the intolerance, the stigma of the Paul amendment.

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