Behind this junk, however, lies the fact that Governor Bush does not support what the vice president advocates. Bush isn't aboard this bipartisan bandwagon for two reasons - business and ideology. Big Insurance and its Big Employer allies have the false belief that discrimination against the mentally ill saves them money, and Bush's conservative ideology opposes expansion of insurance coverage via any mechanism other than tax credits that block that expansion for all save the already comfortable. The result leaves Gore with an opening for what might be called the politics of advocacy. Because of Bush's commitment to cutting the top income tax rates and the huge revenue implications, his campaign is silent on scores of domestic issues which moderate Republicans typically support.
Mental health is a classic case in point.
As Tipper Gore notes, about one in five Americans experiences the symptoms of one of the major mental illnesses each year, but more than two-thirds of them get no treatment. The Gores propose focusing on discrimination against children that would take two forms. But the biggest change would ban insurance discrimination against all children. That means bipolar disorder, major depressions, obsessive-compulsive conditions, schizophrenia, and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders. The push against discrimination is at least a decade old, and is inspired by the battle waged in the 1960s to outlaw insidious cancer exclusions in insurance policies.