Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-FL) yesterday led off the congressional debate on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 that will provide critical access to mental health treatment for Americans. The Act passed the House by a vote of 268-148, with 47 Republicans joining 221 Democrats in support.

The Act provides for fairness and equity in health insurance coverage for mental health and substance-related disorders by ensuring that insurance companies do not charge higher co-payments, deductibles and erect other barriers to mental treatment.

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More than 50 million adults, at least 22 percent of the U.S. population, suffer from mental disorders or substance abuse disorders. One out of every 10 children or adolescents has a serious mental health problem, and another 10 percent have mild to moderate problems. Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability for individuals ages 15 to 44 in the United States. “Untreated mental illness harms our families and children emotionally and financially. Untreated mental illness results in higher costs for businesses and lost productivity. Untreated mental illness often leads to criminal activity,” noted Castor.

Mental disorders are treatable, but unfortunately, less than one-third of people who seek treatment receive adequate care. Insurers often increase patients’ costs for mental health treatment by limiting inpatient days, capping outpatient visits, and requiring higher co-payments than for physical illnesses. Over 90 percent of workers with employer-sponsored health insurance are enrolled in plans that impose higher costs in at least one of these ways. Furthermore, 48 percent are enrolled in plans that impose all three limitations.

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Mental and addictive disorders cost more than $300 billion annually, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. That includes productivity losses of $150 billion, healthcare costs of $70 billion, and $80 billion from other costs such as criminal justice. “Treatment for mental illness is a proven money saver,” said Castor.

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Labels: healthcare

Labels: 2008, primaries

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Joe Lents hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002.

That's when Washington Mutual Inc. first tried to foreclose on his home in Boca Raton, Florida. The Seattle-based lender failed to prove that it owned Lents's mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house. Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork...

Lost-Note Affidavits

When the mortgage servicers and securitizing banks that act as trustees of the securities fail to present proof that they own a mortgage, they sometimes file what's called a lost-note affidavit, said April Charney, a lawyer at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in Florida.

Nobody knows how widespread the use of lost-note affidavits are, Charney said. She's had foreclosure proceedings for 300 clients dismissed or postponed in the past year, with about 80 percent of them involving lost-note affidavits, she said.

``They raise the issue of whether the trusts own the loans at all,'' Charney said. ``Lost-note affidavits are pattern and practice in the industry. They are not exceptions. They are the rule.''

The parts of McCain’s story, even with one or two twists and turns, fit nicely into a coherent narrative that brings credit to him in every chapter. I was resolute in the beginning, I demurred for a while but for good reasons, and now I am resolute again, and you can trust me because, in this area especially, I know what I’m doing. He can rehearse this narrative without apologizing for anything and then turn around to Obama and (borrowing from Clinton’s attacks on him), declare: You, on the other hand, don’t know what you’re doing, as everything you say, not only about the war, but about the conduct of foreign policy, proves. (He and President Bush are already pushing this line in anticipation of Obama’s nomination.)

Indeed, every criticism Clinton has made of Obama – he lacks experience, he is all flourish and no substance, he gives shoot-from-the-hip answers to serious questions – falls into McCain’s lap, ready for instant use in the general election.

But, unfortunately for Obama, the reverse is not true. The criticisms of McCain made by his primary opponents – he twice voted against Bush’s tax cuts, he cooperated with Ted Kennedy on immigration reform and with Russ Feingold on campaign-finance reform, he said that waterboarding was torture and should not be used, he scorned fundamentalist Christian leaders, he supported stem cell research, he opposed a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage, he expressed doubts about Samuel Alito – cannot be appropriated by Obama because these are his positions, too.