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Frank Ryan: WMC supports bias against people with mental illness

Frank Ryan  —  7/05/2008 8:00 am

Dear Editor: The Capital Times is alive and well, and I hope it causes Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce to head for rehabilitation.

It won't be easy. WMC, with its multimillion-dollar campaign donations, has been controlling a big part of our Legislature for a long time.

Thank you to Mike Ivey and Dave Zweifel of The Capital Times and Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign for turning the spotlight on WMC, this state's most serious threat to democratic principles.

WMC, by the way, also has become Wisconsin's No. 1 threat to the mental health of many of our most vulnerable citizens. For years, WMC's campaign money has financed the legislative roadblock to insurance fairness for people with mental illness, giving once-progressive Wisconsin the dubious distinction of being one of only eight states without parity.

Mental illness, by the way, is the only major biological illness Wisconsin discriminates against for insurance purposes.

Many thousands of persons with mental illness in our state, and their families, have been hurt by WMC. The business people who are WMC members ought to know it.

Way to go, Epic Systems and other businesses boycotting WMC. Maybe it's time to start a grass-roots boycott against the business members who fund WMC.

Frank Ryan

former president, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)-Wisconsin

Middleton

Frank Ryan  —  7/05/2008 8:00 am