Isn’t it interesting that the bailout has ballooned from the original three pages to something like four hundred and fifty?  Gee, do you have any idea why?

It might have something to do with all of the added pork, given to Congresspersons who wished to vote against it.  Line items that only apply to one state.  Things that may even be good ideas, but still attached to the bailout because they’re playing politics (with our lives and money).

One interesting addition is making mental healthcare equal to physical.  Again, a great idea, but certainly nothing to do with the handout… bailout.

If I remember correctly, Congress already passed this a few years back.

“But if they passed it, why are there so many restrictions on my behavioral healthcare?  Why aren’t they equal, like the name of the bill?”

Apparently you never read the fine print.  There’s always fine print.  The previous mental healthcare parity act did not affect parity.  In fact, all it did was to mandate that employer-sponsored healthplans for groups over a certain amount of people carried mental healthcare of a certain level.  If you already had mental healthcare coverage, odds are it didn’t do a thing.

So now we have another mental healthcare parity `fix’.   The only questions are

1. what does it `fix’?
2. how does it fix it?
3. who pays for it?

Time is growing short.  CALL YOUR SENATORS.