Diet Pills Still Risky

http://health.msn.com/blogs/healthy-diet-fit-body-blog.aspx?blog=1588&feat=1090174>1=31036

Thank You, Patrick Kennedy

For the entire article, please follow the link to:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042800059.html


Here is just a SMALL portion of the article...

Personal Low, Career Peak
After Drug-Fueled Crash, Patrick Kennedy Turned Focus to Mental Health-Care Reform
By Vincent Bzdek
Washington Post Staff Writer

Political aides counseled Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to mention the incident when he was campaigning for reelection in 2006. "Don't bring it up," they insisted, as Kennedy recounts their reaction. "Everybody already knows about it." Talking about it only reminded Rhode Island voters of other Kennedy family misdeeds and misfortunes, they said.

The incident was the pre-dawn drive the congressman took straight into a security barrier outside of the Capitol on May 4, 2006. At about 2:45 a.m., the bleary-eyed scion of America's royal family staggered out of his green 1997 Ford Mustang convertible and informed police he was late for a vote.

....

Fighting for Parity

After holding a nationwide series of field hearings on mental health coverage, Ramstad and Kennedy fashioned a new bill and presented it to the House.

And then they called in the secret weapon: Dad.

In the Senate, Ted Kennedy took up his son's cause, teaming with Domenici and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) to quietly forge a broad bipartisan coalition after gathering input from mental-health advocates, health-insurance industry representatives and private businesses. With Ted Kennedy pulling the levers, the parity bill cleared the Senate with no dissent in September 2007.

"There aren't any coincidences when it comes to the Senate with my dad around," Patrick Kennedy said. The House's more expansive bill passed six months later.

House and Senate negotiators were hammering out compromises between the two versions when the legislation stalled over differences on unrelated budget procedures. Kennedy began to worry that the bill wouldn't get finished in time for his father to see it happen. The 77-year-old veteran lawmaker is battling a cancerous brain tumor that required surgery last summer.

In Hyannis Port, Mass., recovering from his chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Ted got on the phone. According to Patrick, his father talked nonstop to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and others, wheedling and cajoling his way toward passage, asking them to find a way to bring it up for a vote on the floor during a crowded schedule.

As Congress rushed to adjourn last fall, the bill was attached to the first emergency bailout of the financial industry steaming its way toward passage in late September -- and passed both the House and Senate. The only senator who wasn't there to vote was Patrick's father, who has made only a handful of visits to the Hill since his tumor was diagnosed.

Federal officials say the law, which President Bush signed Oct. 3, will improve coverage for 113 million people, including 82 million in employer-sponsored plans. Beginning in 2010, insurance companies will be required to charge the same co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for addiction and mental health treatments as those for all other illnesses. The legislation is expected to raise health-care premiums 0.2 percent to 0.4 percent on average and cost taxpayers about $3.4 billion over 10 years.

Ted Kennedy counts the bill among his greatest achievements as a senator. "I am enormously proud of Patrick's unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for all Americans struggling with mental illness," he said in an e-mail. "He is a true champion for the cause and a voice for the voiceless."

Patrick sent a note to his father the night after the bill became law. He wanted his thanks to be written down, something his father could forever hold and keep.

"Because in a sense," he explained, "in his fighting for it, he was fighting for something that was not only important to me, personally, as a son, but he was fighting against the stigma and shame that I've always felt at being 'lesser than' because I've had this illness. And that meant the world to me."

Vincent Bzdek is the author of "The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled" (Palgrave Macmillan 2009), which is published today.

Patrick Kennedy on CNN -mental health parity

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/08/26/intv.patrick.kennedy.cnn?iref=videosearch

My hero, Patrick Kennedy, speaking about his father's appearance at the DNC... I love how impassioned he is when he speaks...and how he manages to mention Mental Health Parity every place he goes. He is so wonderful.
The people of the State of Rhode Island are so lucky to have him as their Rep. ...and the EDC is so lucky to have him on our side. Thanks, Congressman. peace, K.

mindful eating

my friend Abby sent me a link to this article...check it out :)

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/2022

URGENT action alert!!

(republished from Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law email/action alert)

Negotiations on Parity Near Conclusion

The following urgent action alert comes from the Health Policy Committee of theMental Health Liaison Group, co-chaired by Laurel Stine of the Bazelon Centerand Peter Newbould of the American Psychological Association

Targets: All Members of the House of Representatives and Senate.Action: Use the toll-free Parity Hotline, 1-866-parity4 (1-866-727-4894), tocall your U.S. Representative and Senators. (The Parity Hotline reaches theCapitol switchboard, which can connect callers to their members of Congress).

Message: "I am calling to ask that the Representative/Senator urge theLeadership to help conclude negotiations on a mental health parity bill thatcan pass in both houses and become law this year. Relief from health benefitdiscrimination against mental and substance use disorders must wait no longer.

"Background: With suicide claiming some 30,000 lives each year in this country,health-benefit barriers still block millions of Americans from getting neededmental health and substance-use treatment. Given the critical need forCongress to lift those discriminatory barriers and a limited number oflegislative days to do so, there is profound urgency to forging a compromise onmental health parity legislation that will not only yield strong protectionsbut can pass both chambers. We applaud initial steps to reach that compromise,and call on Senate and House leaders to move quickly to ensure enactment of astrong mental health parity law this year. We have been pushing hard since 2001 to enact full mental health parity, andvictory is finally within reach.

Following the Senate's historic passage of S. 558 by unanimous consent in September and House passage of H.R. 1424 on March5, informal negotiations commenced.

Parity supporters across America should contact their Representative and Senators NOW to urge support for successfullyconcluding this process. Senate and House leaders should continue to worktogether to reconcile differences between the versions and produce a bill that can pass in both chambers.

Failure to pass a parity bill in 2008 would further delay relief for millionsof American families who now face discrimination. It would also place the issue directly in the path of a health care policy tornado in 2009 -- healthcare reform - with no assurance that our issue would receive the attention itneeds.

The Legislation: Both S. 558 and H.R. 1424 expand the Mental Health Parity Actof 1996 by prohibiting group health plans from imposing treatment or financiallimitations on mental health benefits that are different from those applied tomedical/surgical services. The legislation applies only to group health plansalready providing mental health benefits and exempts plans sponsored by smallbusinesses of 50 and under employees.

Resources: Fact sheets on parity and rosters of organizations supporting theHouse and Senate bills may be found at http://www.mhlg.org/page18.html