Forget the “Pill” we need a new common sense pill for politicians. Now insurance companies will pay the full cost of oral contraceptives.

Read this:

Politico: Birth-Control Compromise To Be Announced By White House
President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement at 12:15 p.m. He is expected to announce that he wants insurance companies to pick up the cost of providing free contraceptives for religious employers, according to one source familiar with the announcement. White House officials briefed reproductive rights groups and Democratic lawmakers Friday morning on the expected announcement (Budoff Brown, 2/10).

From Bloomberg Businessweek:  Under the new policy, religious employers will not be required to offer contraception and will not have to refer their employees to places that provide it. Instead, the employer’s insurance company must provide birth control for free in a separate arrangement with workers who want it

“He wants insurance companies to pick up the cost of providing free contraceptives for religious employers!”  Holy crap! (no pun intended).  

Insurance companies you say, has anyone told those in the White House that nearly all employers of any size are self-insured and there is no insurance involved, who will be paying for this coverage? 

Only in the case of religious organizations will insurance companies have to carry the full cost?  You are kidding right, all other employers must pay this added expense which will be shared by all employees.  What utter nonsense.

This is the most absurd issue to date with regard to the Affordable Care Act.  Birth control pills are not health care, pregnancy is not an illness and the cost of the pill is already affordable to anyone, poor, rich or otherwise.  Read the political rhetoric on this and you would think working women cannot afford contraception.  This isn’t about the poor, it is about people who earn a good living, in some cases the so-called wealthy, who now need a federal law to require a pill that does not treat an illness and is taken voluntarily (I know it can be used for certain medical conditions, but that is not the issue) to be free.

The argument that it is cheaper to pay for the pill than for a pregnancy is equally misleading.  It is still cheaper for everyone if individuals who voluntarily choose to take a contraceptive to pay their own way.  This is not a tradeoff, it is misuse of insurance. 

This isn’t about women’s health, it is about government furthering certain  agendas.  I think men who buy condoms should be covered 100%, men who need a hairpiece should be covered 100% on the basis of the psychological injury caused by baldness, reversal of a vasectomy should be covered at 100% as should the full cost of in-vitro fertilization.  You see anyone can make the case for “free” stuff without regard to logic or the consequences.

If this is going to be the way the Affordable Care Act is interpreted and administered, we are all in serious trouble. 

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