I found your article interesting in many respects. I do not necessarily agree with every point. But I am one of a very few mental health care providers that is not totally convinced that every mandate and mental health parity is actually good for the country or even consumers of health care. The amount of fraud that goes on in health care in general and mental health care in particular should be cause to consider every option and alternative seriously.

For example Department of Health and Human Services OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL found that One-third of outpatient mental health services provided to Medicare beneficiaries were medically unnecessary, billed incorrectly, rendered by unqualified providers, and undocumented or poorly documented. See http://www.oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-03-99-00130.pdf .

Ironically I found your article not referenced but cut and pasted in its entirety on a left leaning discussion group pf mental health professionals. See http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Clinicians_Exchange/message/31253

I am going to guess that permission to reprint your copyrighted article was never obtained. Yahoo apparently does very little to enforce their terms of user about copyrights despite several inquiries about their enforcement of their own terms of use.

In any event some of us are interested in your views and even if you are accused of being on the right that does not mean that you are always wrong. I am not saying you are right but we do need a civil discourse on the issues. Of course it’s easy to have a civil conversation with someone who is in agreement. The challenge is to have one with someone who thinks differently.

Thanks for your views.

John A. Riolo, PhD

As Goodman points out, it studiously ignores several very important positive features of McCain’s plan and deliberately exaggerates its defects.

And in at least one instance (as Goodman points out at the end of his post) the authors make an assertion that is demonstrably false.