2014
The SCOTUS heard arguments on the Obamacare contraception mandate March 25th. The New York Times reports the government position as follows:
Q. How does the administration justify the law?
A. In his briefs, Mr. Verrilli told the justices that requiring insurance plans to include comprehensive coverage for contraception promotes public health and ensures that “women have equal access to health care services.” He added that doctors, rather than employers, should decide which form of contraception is best. A supporting brief from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group, said that many women cannot afford the most effective means of birth control and that the law will reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions.
I’ve hashed this one out many times, but recently I was taken to task on Twitter about an older post on this topic. The law is the law and unless the SCOTUS shocks us by agreeing with the owners of Hobby Lobby, there is nothing much to argue about.
However, that doesn’t change the fact this issue is not about health care, but politics and gaining the women’s vote
Consider the government’s argument to the Supreme Court: “ensures that women have equal access to health care services.” He added that doctors, rather than employers, should decide which form of contraception is best”
What health care services? What employer or anyone else wants to decide on birth control for a women? This isn’t about deciding on birth control for anyone. That argument misrepresents the entire issue
Even if you accept the notion that this drug, used entirely on a voluntary basis, affordable and treating no illness should be a covered benefit, where is the logic it should be provided “free”? Every other drug used by men and women, drugs necessary to treat illness and some life saving, requires a co-payment or coinsurance and yet our government argues before the SCOTUS that this one drug must be available and paid for in full.
That alone should tell you how much of a political farce the requirement is.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
What is most hilarious, or most galling depending on your temperament, about your attackers is that you are getting attacked for telling women to drop manicures in order to pay for birth control, which you did NOT say, yet you are being attacked by uber Obamacare supporters, after Obama himself told people to cancel cable tv to pay for Obamacare. The hypocrisy is delicious.
Copays? Deductibles? What a horrible thought.
I see the future now: Sunscreen = health care right, therefore it should be provided by taxpayers for free; bug spray is a health care right, therefore it should be provided by taxpayers for free; nail clippers are a health care right, therefore they should be provided by taxpayers for free.
LikeLike