Yesterday I had an article published on TownHall.com. In it I comment on coverage that health insurance companies are required by law to include in all policies–such as for contraception, in vitro fertilization and many other services–regardless of whether people actually want or need that coverage. State governments have imposed these benefit mandates for more than sixty years, and now Obamacare will impose a variety of them on the federal level.
In the article, I say:
This election season, perhaps in an attempt to win the so-called women’s vote, the marketing efforts for Obamacare targeted my gender. “Thanks to the Affordable Care Act,” Representative Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius cheered in one editorial, “a new day for women’s health has arrived.” They’re referring to the provision that all health plans must now include coverage for contraception and other women’s services—and must do so without charging co-pays or deductibles for them.
Given that I have two X chromosomes and am not Catholic, you might be surprised to learn that I’m not cheering along. After all, what woman of child-bearing age would be against free, FDA-approved birth control?
But the alternative is not really between free contraception and contraception I have to pay for. It’s between two visions of the American health care system: one in which I’m free to make decisions and one in which that freedom is eroded.
Read the whole thing here.
VfR updates via Twitter
Entries (RSS)
Amazon Kindle edition
Facebook
Entries (RSS)