STABENOW: And we very much appreciate the senator not speaking about that topic that he just spoke about. We appreciate that.

Welcome. It's wonderful to see you, and look forward to working with you in your new capacity as secretary. And I appreciated the fact we've had an opportunity to talk about a number of things, administration fixes for the Medicare reimbursement system for physicians, which I know you're looking at, and appreciate your really considering how to improve Medicare, generic drugs, health IT, which Senator Snowe and Senator Enzi and I have worked on together and how we implement that, which is so important, given the dollars in the recovery package and so on, so many different issues that we all care about around health reform.

But I'm going to take my time to talk about something we don't talk a lot about in the context of health reform that I believe very strongly needs to be a part of that, and that relates to mental health services. Mental illnesses are among the most expensive and disabling chronic diseases. In fact, the World Health Organization has pronounced mental health disorders to be the leading cause of disability in the United States based on burden of disease.

And mental illnesses often accompany and greatly increase the cost of treating other chronic diseases. So it's all connected, but when we talk about health care reform and chronic diseases, we usually don't include mental health issues.

Individuals with serious mental illnesses die, on average, 25 years earlier than the general population due to the lack of adequate care coordination, preventative measures, and the fact that, again, it's often tied to diabetes and heart disease and cancer and asthma and other kinds of things. And so I think it's very important that we be including when we talk about health care reform.

And so a couple of questions. What would you do as secretary to ensure that, in fact, mental health conditions are included in health care reform initiatives? And secondly, how would you see your role in improving the integration of mental health and primary care for children as well as for adults?

SEBELIUS: Well, Senator, I think you've identified a critical need. I was very proud of the work I was able to do in Kansas as a leader in the effort to pass legislation mandating mental health parity so that we currently have provisions in the law which require health insurers to provide mental health parity to the physical health insurance that is being delivered. I'm pleased that the reauthorized CHIP bill has a mental health parity component in it. I think that's a big step forward, and I -- there's no doubt at all that as we look at health reform, mental health coverage is a critical part of making Americans well and healthy, and early identification, ongoing treatment, access to psychotropic drugs, in addition to prescription -- other prescription drugs, are -- are critical components.

I'm alarmed, as are many across the country, in the growing numbers of -- the growing evidence that we have a lot of undiscovered depression in children, undiscovered psychiatric trauma in children that often and luckily in somewhat rare cases is acted out in the worst possible incidents, but, if found earlier, it -- it would be very helpful. We know we have dozens of people, thousands across the country, maybe millions in our prisons who are really the victims of mental health diseases, and that helped to trigger a criminal activity.

So I think we are paying the cost in probably the least effective, most expensive way, and making sure that mental health services are incorporated as we move forward on health reform is certainly a commitment I would love to work with you on, if confirmed.

We also in the -- in the department have the agency for substance abuse and mental health treatment, and I think that's another important asset to make sure that not only those voices are at the table, but that that agency assets are used to maximize the coverage and care for people across America.

STABENOW: Thank you very much.

One other quick question: I wonder if you might just speak in terms of FDA and NIH about how you would move us in terms of being able to ensure discovery and market and access to safe, effective, new breakthrough medications. You know, we're so close in so many areas, but we have diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and Juvenile Diabetes, and so many other areas where we need to be moving much more quickly to be providing the resources and finding the treatments and the cures.

SEBELIUS: Well, Senator, I -- I share your enthusiasm about the potential for cures in the near future, and the -- there's no question that we have the most innovative and technically -- technologically savvy scientists in the world right here in America. So one of the commitments I would make to you that as secretary, if I am confirmed and have an opportunity to serve in this capacity, that we will lead with science; whether it's the National Institutes of Health or CDC or other entities, the FDA, that science-based, evidence-based research will be the -- the primary goal and unlock the creativity and ingenuity of the researchers who currently are often curtailed in -- in their ability to find the cures and...