Uncompassionate.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)

Health: President Bush's call for "mental health parity" in insurance may get votes. But what happens when only the rich can get any health insurance?

Bush got the headlines he no doubt sought. "Bush Backs Mental Health Parity." Or "Bush Pushes Compassionate Agenda." And that no doubt will play well with the voters whose sense of entitlement is exceeded only by their indifference to facts.

Oh good, these taken-care-of voters will observe, that's only fair to the millions of people with mental illnesses. Make insurers cover them too -- and at the same dollar amounts at which insurers cover physical illnesses.

But what Bush, and his allies on Capitol Hill -- mostly Democrats on this issue -- are largely shrugging off is the relationship among government mandates, health coverage and the uninsured.

In 1996, the same coalition on the Hill pushed the camel's nose under the tent and passed a mental health parity bill. Under it, insurers that offered mental health coverage had to equal the same lifetime caps on it that they did on physical health coverage. But insurers were not required to offer mental health coverage.

That law expired last fall, and the coalition -- led by Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. -- is back at it.

This time, they want more. They want to require all insurers to offer ...