On Wednesday, the Iowa House is set to debate a “mental health parity” billwhich will force insurance companies to cover treatment for mentalillnesses. Governor Tom Vilsack is challenging legislators to forceinsurers to cover substance abuse treatment, too.Vilsack says his research indicates there is NOT a significant increase inthe cost of insurance in states which force insurance companies to pay forsubstance abuse treatment.Vilsack says substance abuse has to be treated, in some form or another.Vilsack says the reason Iowa’s prison population has increased is there’sbeen a failure to intervene quickly when someone first develops a substanceabuse problem. Republican legislators say they are not going to addsubstance abuse treatment to the list of problems insurance companies areforced to cover.