The following is the text of a letter to the editor printed in the New York Times in response to the controversy over mandated coverage for contraceptives and the Catholic Church.
I call your attention to the second and last paragraphs.
Ruling on Contraception Draws Battle Lines at Catholic Colleges” (“Political Science” series, front page, Jan. 30) highlights the controversy over Catholics and contraception laws. Catholic health institutions want to avoid prescribing birth control. They frame it as an infringement of their faith. But this isn’t an issue of regulating religion, but rather of general health care. Medical workers provide services essential to the public. Their critical role requires regulation.
People put trust in their doctors, and that trust shouldn’t be abused. If I go to the doctor, I expect the best possible medical advice. A sexually active person requires access to birth control. Unexpected pregnancy can have complications for both mothers and their children.
The law doesn’t require anyone to take birth control. It only compels doctors to prescribe it to those who ask.
Americans are amazing in their inability to separate reimbursement by insurance from the use of health care, but rather display a total detachment from the reality of obtaining health services and who pays for those services.
The law does not require doctors to prescribe contraceptives to those who ask, it requires health insurers and health plans to reimburse for the expense without any cost sharing (on the questionable basis this is preventive health care). Here is what the HHS website says must be covered. As you can see it is far beyond simply oral contraceptives.
All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity.
The fundamental issue regarding the purpose of insurance has been hijacked into the world of political correctness. Will we ever be capable of drawing the line between reasonable reimbursement for necessary medical care and coverage for every possible service and device somebody sells and someone else desires?
The answer is no, we have lost any sense of personal responsibility for even the most predictable, routine, affordable aspects of health care. In addition, we have been convinced that access to quality health care is only possible when near total reimbursement is required of a third-party.
Isn’t it curious that when it comes to paying taxes our liberal friends seek a “fair share” from families earning $250,000 or more, yet those same families and individual middle class women are assumed not to have the resources to deal with a co-pay for their birth control pills?
And you thought buying health care was just like buying a pair of shoes, ha!
Related articles
- Letters: The Church and the Birth Control Ruling (nytimes.com)
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
President Obama is a master at diversion. Here we are wrapped up in debt issues and he chooses to “take on” this social issue to detract from the real issues in the Country.
I have heard recently some say he (Obama) did a great thing by reversing his decision to require religious institutions to pay for Birth Control. When you ask people if employees in those institutions had health insurance – they all say yes for the most part. But when you ask them if that insurance company pays for birth control they scratch their heads or say yes. Then you aks who pays for that benefit they say why it is the Company and me in the premium. Most people still do not understand or believe in the principle of self-insurance.
Meanwhile, the new budget shows another monumental increase in the debt which gets swept under the carpet while this issue of health care and the issue of contraceptives bounces around the room. It is similar to watching the reaction in a room full of people when a mouse runs across the floor- all attention is diverted to the mouse while the budget bomb gets passed because energies are divered and it is time to go home!
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