US orders Health Insurance to Cover Birth Control for Women

Men are more likely to be overweight, smokers, engage in risky activities, consume alcohol and drugs, have less frequent health check ups.....but lets charge women more because they have babies.

BTW, some insurers exclude coverage of pregnancy (pre-natal and delivery) and still charge women higher premiums.

 

Erm, those things are in fact discrimination, The 'objections' you raised don't contradict that, they merely support the idea that it's justified.

 

very true.

why are the other classes (smokers, drinkers, overweight etc.) justified for discrimination though?

 

Because they engage in those activities voluntarily (those aren't protected classes).

 

sex is voluntary last time i checked. also age isn't voluntary, being born with diabetes isn't voluntary. it's ok to discriminate against all these other classes except with women it's magically different.

 

So lets charge the woman more? Because her risky lifestyle choice was being born female?

Discriminating against persons with pre-existing conditions would be prohibited under the ACA, as opposed to the "free market" where those with such conditions either pay much higher rates or cannot afford insurance at all.

 

Risky behavior resulting from being born female:

 

I see diabetes has been addressed.

Age isn't voluntary, but driving like an asshole is. As is driving at all, for that matter. And even if I were to cede you the argument, it represents a better argument for ending discrimination against young drivers than it does continued discrimination against women.

As has been addressed elsewhere, hormonal birth control has functions beyond family planning. Even those forms of birth control (including abortion) that do not still fall well under the umbrella of 'family planning'. As long as family planning is covered, (women's and men's), you can't force a protected class to participate in an insurance program and also pay more for for participating. That would be government mandated discrimination.

Now if you want to assert that family planning shouldn't be covered under a basic insurance plan, feel free, but don't expect to me to take it very seriously.

You should also realize that the same reasoning you want to apply here to charge more for women's health services can also be applied down racial lines which would result in pretty much all non-white people paying more for the same services. Again, that would be government mandated discrimination.

 

it is a very small bone to pick in the grand scheme of things but what it represents is more important i guess. can organizations be forced to pay for things that are against their religious beliefs? also what should the role of government in healthcare even be?

of course i'm the opinion that you should be able to do what you want as long as it's not hurting someone else. but where this healthcare crap is obviously headed is forcing you to stop doing risky behaviors which many people enjoy. oh, you're too much burden on the system from years of smoking no healthcare for you. the healthcare rationing and severe taxes for what they would call sin behaviors are right around the corner.

i just want to be left alone and this is just one more thing that the liberals want me to pay for. i've had enough. take your free healthcare and leave me out.

 

Our health care system is a private insurance system, for the most part.

The role of the government is to prevent discrimination in health care services; a common practice among the "free market" in the form of the aforementioned gender rating, excluding pre-existing conditions, dropping patients after being diagnosed with a disease....not to regulate your risky or sinful behavior.

 

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