State Sen. Bill Purcell attacked John McCain's health care plan today.

At a press conference at the N.C. Democratic Party headquarters in Raleigh this morning, the Laurinburg Democrat argued that McCain's proposals would hurt the existing system of employer-provided health insurance.

A retired pediatrician and longtime state senator, Purcell said that by encouraging individuals and families to buy their own insurance on the open market, McCain's plan would let employers off the hook for providing it.

He also argued that individuals would not be able to negotiate as good a deal as corporations with large blocs of employees can.

"I don't believe the McCain health plan will solve — or even help — our problem in North Carolina," he said. 

Purcell said that Obama's plan would work better because it builds on existing employer-provided insurance plans and expands government programs to help the uninsured. 

Is there a difference between physical and mental health?

In recent years, mental health providers and advocates have sought to blur the line between diseases of the mind and body, arguing that it is a false distinction that leads to common misperceptions of how mental illness works.

In pop culture, mental illness is caused by childhood trauma or an inability to cope and is solved with Freudian talk therapy. But increasingly doctors are finding that genetic problems or brain injuries are behind many problems and prescription drugs are the answer.

(Advocates also hope that erasing the distinction will lead to mental health parity — meaning that insurers and the government do not distinguish between heart disease and bipolar disorder, for example, when paying for care.)

It would be mostly an academic question, but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue used the distinction during a debate Tuesday to argue she was not responsible for the problems with the state's mental health reform efforts.

When Republican Pat McCrory noted that Perdue has called herself a "health leader" in the state, she responded: "Physical health, not mental health, Pat. There's a real difference."

Since 2001, Perdue has chaired the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund. Although the group did not play a role in mental health reform, it has tackled the issue of mental health.

In this May 2007 press release, for example, the group announced that it was providing a grant for mental health providers to help with prescription drug needs.

Update: The Perdue campaign responds here. 

How closely have North Carolina's senators worked with Barack Obama?

A quick search of legislation filed this session shows that U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr have each cosponsored one bill with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Dole signed on to an Obama bill to authorize state and local governments to divest from companies that have invested more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector.

Burr signed on to an Obama bill to accelerate research into the genetic causes of disease in order to improve medical diagnoses.

Obama has not signed on to any Dole- or Burr-sponsored bills.

Sen. Kay Hagan is seeking more than $48 million in state spending.

The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate has sponsored one bill and co-sponsored 16 bills seeking appropriations in the upcoming state budget. As a longtime state senator, she is serving an advisory role on the budget in the short session.

Hagan is the primary sponsor of a bill that would give the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering run by UNC-Greensboro and N.C. A&T University $2.9 million in the budget.

Among the larger appropriations bills she is cosponsoring: $12 million for the N.C. Housing Trust Fund, $9.5 million to the UNC system for 4-H camps, and $8.1 million to buy a building for a student services center at N.C. A&T.

She is also asking for $3 million for Boys & Girls Club programs targeting dropouts and teen pregnancy, $3 million for an International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, $2.6 million for promoting the semiannual furniture market in High Point, $2.5 million for minority financial literacy programs, $2 million for arts programs and $1 million for a parental school involvement pilot program.

Among the appropriations under $1 million: Money for a literacy program in Wake County public schools, an electronic health information study commission, Kids Voting programs, a John Coltrane Music Hall in Greensboro, job training for the homeless and former inmates, a male-oriented teen pregnancy prevention program, and housing for recovering substance abusers in Greensboro.

The state House approved a health insurance pool for about 9,000 high-risk patients Monday.

The program is designed for people with cancer, diabetes or other illnesses who cannot get coverage because insurers won't sell it to them, the N&O's Lynn Bonner reports.

People in the pool would pay for more than 65 percent of the cost through premiums, which are limited to 175 percent of a healthy person's payments.

Insurance companies would also pay part of the cost. Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam of Apex, the House minority leader, said that amounted to an "off-budget tax." 

Rep. Verla Insko, an Orange County Democrat, is a main sponsor of the bill.