Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, has long championed the idea of equal coverage, or parity.
Mr. Domenici and Mr. Wellstone said they wanted to require health plans and insurance companies to provide equivalent coverage, or parity, for mental and physical illnesses.
Rivers is covered under a federal employees' plan that guarantees full parity coverage.
"There are three things women cyclists have been asking for: the same course as the men, the same media coverage and financial parity.
The notion of equal coverage, referred to as parity, was also endorsed by Vice President Al Gore and Gov. George W. Bush during their presidential campaigns.
Both male and female athletes were doing well in the British team, and she was enjoying the unusual parity of coverage.
And we have got to fill in the gaps in coverage by finally bringing parity for the treatment of mental illness because that's been left out.
A country's health policy aims to provide health services to all who need them and achieve spatial parity in coverage.
Children with mental health conditions may also be particularly vulnerable to the effects of insurance status given the historical lack of parity between coverage for physical and mental health conditions.
Some patients don't have adequate insurance to obtain specialized mental-health care, despite legislative efforts, including the Affordable Care Act, to create parity between mental-health coverage and coverage for other medical conditions.
General McCaffrey was instrumental in persuading President Clinton to extend such parity in health coverage to nine million federal employees.
