Poli Pod: Joe Kennedy III

Joe Kennedy III is a U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district and candidate for U.S. Senate. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Kennedy just might be that white knight we’ve been waiting for to recognize the need for mental health care reform. He has established national leadership on the issue already. I’m excited to bring you this tet-a-tet between two crusaders for mental health parity.

Maggie McGregor: I am here with Joe Kennedy on February 4th and Joe what is your Starbucks order?

Joe Kennedy III: A Grande nonfat latte with an extra shot of espresso, triple shot, minimum. 

MM: Joe, that is a great order. Thank you for that. Joe, what do you have to say to the readers on Style Mag Daily that are listening to this, about mental health parity? I appreciate what your family does so much and I follow your cousin Patrick Kennedy.

JK: Thank you. The way that this country treats those suffering from mental and behavioral health care issues is atrocious. The system has failed. You see the reflection of that everyday across our hospitals, you see it in our criminal justice system, you see it in the 20 % of Americans who will struggle over the course of their lifetime, essentially one in every family and yet we do nowhere near enough to make sure that people get access to the care that they need when they need it.  The promise of mental health parity is to ensure that at the very least providers that are going to treat, insurance companies that are going to treat mental health care, that they have to do so as they treat physical health care. We are seeing over time a huge divergence in the way in which people are treated. The promise of mental health parity is that it will become equal. The challenge that we have at the moment is a lot of folks aren’t compliant with the law. And so we need far more robust oversights, regulation, and enforcement to ensure that insurance companies are making good on the baseline protections already passed into law and we know that they are not. So we’ve got a lot more work to do and in addition to that, then addressing the structural short-calls for reimbursement rates, providers, access to care… and a whole lot of  other stuff.

MM: Thank you so much for that, and before we sit down to eat, can you tell us something about your fashion sense?

JK: I have none.

MM: None?

JK: None. No fashion sense whatsoever. My wife would agree to that and almost anyone else who knows me would agree to that as well. 

MM: Well keep tuning in and hopefully you’ll learn a thing or two.

JK: I would love any advice. Lord knows I need it. 

Count on a follow-up because Lord knows we’ve got fashion advice in spades.