Mental health parity movement moving ahead

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.