60 Minutes’ Mike Wallace Backed Pete Domenici’s Mental Health Parity Bill

Watching “60 Minutes’” hour-long tribute to Mike Wallace tonight made me recall the day Wallace showed up in Washington to drum up support for former Sen. Pete Domenici’s mental health parity bill.

Domenici, who has a schizophrenic daughter, pushed for years to force insurance companies to cover mental illnesses the same as physical ailments. Wallace battled depression and even contemplated suicide. President Bush signed mental health parity into law in 2008.

One day in December 2001, I covered an exchange among Wallace, Domenici and reporters at a press conference under a canopy of trees on the Senate side of the Capitol grounds. Ted Kennedy and Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter showed up, too. Even though the subject that day was serious, it was a fun event to cover.

Here’s an excerpt from the story I filed:

Mike Wallace, the legendary 60 Minutes reporter who has battled severe depression for years, stepped to the microphone to plug Domenici’s bill and poke a little fun at the Republican senator.

 ”It occurred to me that most of the people who suffer from mental illness are Democrats,” Wallace told about 75 reporters and mental health advocates. “But Pete Domenici straightened me out.”

What Wallace meant is that many people assume a congressional push to force health insurance companies to offer more extensive coverage would be the work of Democrats.

But Domenici, whose daughter is schizophrenic, has long led the fight to force health care companies to cover mental illness the same way they cover physical ailments, such as heart disease.

Responding to Wallace, a grinning Domenici was quick to point out that his bill has plenty of Republican co-sponsors including Sen. Bill Frist, R-Fla., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. The measure has already passed the Senate, and negotiators are fighting to convince the House to adopt the measure, as well.

Joining Domenici and Wallace at the news conference were former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill.”