Columnist Benjamin Grove: In health insurance battle, Reid discovers odd ally

Benjamin Grove

Friday, May 3, 2002 | 3:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., found a powerful -- and awkward -- ally last week in his battle to increase health insurance coverage for mental illnesses: President Bush.

It's no surprise that Reid and Bush -- two high-profile leaders of their parties -- have been at odds on a variety of issues. But the No. 2 Senate Democrat's frustration with the president has grown even more noticeable in the last two weeks.

In a Senate floor speech early last week, Reid blasted a Bush proposal that would hurt college students -- and their parents -- by eliminating the federally subsidized fixed-interest rate for consolidated college loans. (Bush backed off by week's end after it became clear that Congress would never back the proposal.)

Of course, Reid was already ticked that Bush had approved Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste site. And Reid, the top Democrat on the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, keeps a growing list of Bush's anti-environmental proposals.

Last week Reid and six other Democratic senators formed what they call an "Environmental Truth Team" to periodically distribute "Toxic Trophy Awards" to the Bush administration. The first one went Thursday to the Department of Health and Human Services for a proposal to repeal lead poisoning tests for Medicaid children.

So it was intriguing Monday when Reid found a friend in Bush. The president's somewhat surprising endorsement of mental health parity came during a two-day Western swing to promote his "compassionate conservative" agenda. He told an Albuquerque audience: "Mental disability is not a scandal -- it is an illness. And like physical illnesses, it is treatable."

But the devil is always in the details on Capitol Hill, and so far, Bush hasn't offered any. It's not clear whether Bush supports widespread coverage for all mental illness sufferers, or just "serious" afflictions.

Legislation introduced last year by Reid, Sens. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would require broad mental health coverage. The legislation required companies with 50 or more employees to provide the same benefits coverage for mental disorders as offered for other illnesses. It would also ban group health plans from limiting hospital stays and charging higher co-payments and deductibles than those paid for physical ailments.

Bush's popularity, while still lofty, has slipped. Critics suggest Bush is casting around for domestic issues he can promote to prove that he is about more than the war on terrorism. Mental health parity might be a good one, except for the fact that some of Bush's pro-business and insurance group allies oppose the legislation because it would drive up their insurance rates.

Bush aides insist this is no random issue-grab. Bush backed the parity issue as governor in Texas, and is making a good-faith, behind-the-scenes effort to broker a real deal in Congress now, they say.

But Reid is unimpressed so far, hinting that Bush's endorsement smells more like politicking than policy-making.

Reid noted that the Senate passed the mental health parity legislation last year as part of the Health and Human Services appropriations bill, with nary a peep of support from Bush. House GOP lawmakers in a joint House-Senate negotiating room promptly stripped it out, fearing it would dramatically increase health care costs.

And the president didn't include it as part of his budget proposals for the next fiscal year, Reid said.

"I'm glad he is talking about mental health parity, because it is so important," Reid said. "But where was he last year? He was president last year, too, you know."

Still, Reid recognizes that this may be the break he needs to get the issue passed.

So it will be interesting to watch how the White House and congressional leaders play this issue out, given the politics -- and passion -- invested in it.

The issue is personal for the senators. Wellstone's brother spent two years in a mental hospital after a breakdown, and it took his parents years to pay the bills. Domenici, who has a daughter with schizophrenia, has pushed for the issue for more than a decade.

And Reid joined the effort in part because he is sensitive to the issue of depression; his father committed suicide. He carries the issue close to heart -- literally. When I asked Reid about Bush's announcement, he reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a political cartoon from Thursday's Washington Post. In it, Bush says, "We must have parity for the treatment of mental illnesses ... but it can't cost any money." Two doctors sitting behind Bush say: "Passive aggressive?" and "Or just plain delusional?"

"I've been carrying it around with me all day," Reid said of the cartoon. "This says it all."