Top News

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Rosalynn Carter teamed up with the son of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone Tuesday to push for mental health insurance legislation, with the former first lady saying the goal has never been closer to realization.

"We've been working on this for so long, it finally seems to be in reach," said Carter, who has championed mental health causes for more than 35 years.

David Wellstone is hoping to carry out the legacy of his father, a Minnesota Democrat who died in a plane crash in 2002.

"Although he was passionate on many issues, there was not another issue that surpassed this in terms of his passion," David Wellstone said.

Carter and Wellstone are hoping lawmakers will pass the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act," which would require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies include both. The two advocates, along with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., talked about the legislation over lunch with The Associated Press on Tuesday, prior to testifying at a House subcommittee hearing on the bill.

"I think it's a moral issue," Carter said.

David Wellstone recalled how his father talked about his own brother's battle with mental illness, and said the experience motivated him seek to better mental health coverage laws when he got to the Senate. In 1996, Wellstone and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., won passage of a law that made it illegal for plans offering mental health coverage to set lower annual and lifetime spending limits for mental treatments than for physical ailments.

The legislation pending in Congress would build on that by adding things like co-payments, deductibles and treatment limitations, a longtime goal of Paul Wellstone's.

Patrick Kennedy, who teamed up with Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., on the bill, said prospects have brightened for passage not only because of a Democratic Congress, but also with more people getting sensitized to mental illness because of soldiers returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"It's a much different environment now," said Kennedy, who has battled depression, alcoholism and drug abuse.

However, the legislation faces a competing bill in the Senate championed by Kennedy's father, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., that House advocates say doesn't go far enough. The Senate bill was a result of a compromise following negotiations with businesses, the insurance industry and mental health advocates. Business and insurance groups had fought previous versions, arguing the legislation would drive up insurance costs.

The House version specifies that if a plan provides mental health benefits, then it must cover conditions provided by the health plan with the highest average enrollment of federal employees. The Senate bill does not have similar language. Another difference is that the Senate bill calls for pre-emption of state parity laws in treatment limitations and financial requirements.

At a hearing of a House Education and Labor subcommittee later that day, industry officials expressed preference for the Senate version.

"We need to have some flexibility in how we design our health plans," said Jon Breyfogle, a lawyer testifying on behalf of the American Benefits Council.

Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, called the House bill an "employer mandate" that would drive up the cost of health insurance and make it less available to people.

However, Stephen Melek, an actuary with the consulting and actuarial firm Milliman, said that his firm's analysis of the House bill estimated it would lead to an increase of health insurance premiums of just 0.6 percent -- or $2.40 per member per month.

-------

Wellstone was preceded by Rudy Boschwitz and succeeded by Dean Barkley in the U.S. Senate.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)