A Bad State of Mind: Minnesota's fractured mental health system

Mental health parity movement moving ahead

by Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. — Should insurance companies treat mental health issues the same way they treat physical health issues?

The mental health parity debate has been wagedin Washington for more than a decade. It lost an advocate in the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002.

The bill's other sponsor, Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, thinks that the "time may be right" for passage of the bill in the 110th Congress.

Minnesota Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad, from Minnesota's 3rd District, has been a sponsor of the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act" in the U.S. House.

MPR's All Things Considered host Tom Crann talked with Ramstad, the co-chair of the House Disabilities Caucus.

Broadcast Dates

• All Things Considered, 01/09/2007, 5:20 p.m.