Why Health Insurance Providers Should Have To Cover Birth Control

This post was originally written on 3/1/2012

So many stupid people, so little time.  On the heels of the debate over whether or not religious institutions should be required to offer to their employees health insurance coverage for family planning services, we now have a large contingent of the conservative right coming out and telling us that birth control and abortions and such shouldn't be covered by health insurance at all.  Several public figures, and a whole bunch of people who feel compelled to comment on articles relating to this whole debate are quick to point out that, gosh darnit, it just isn't right to make someone else subsidize you gettin some nooky.  Why, for only pennies a day, you can prevent unwanted pregnancy by holding an aspirin between your knees!
      It should be pointed out that a clear majority of the people making these ridiculous and offensive statements are of the penis persuasion.  We should have known that when we have a problem that only really affects those of us with a uterus, the best people to solve it are those whose last experience with a uterus was shortly before they were born.  Women can't figure this stuff out on our own of course, because we are stupid and hormonal and all emotional and junk.  Oh, and a lot of us are sluts.  That too.
      Never mind that the whole insurance system is fucked.  Some fool at some point (probably someone of the penis persuasion) decided that the best way to deal with skyrocketing medical costs was to resort to a little bit of communism by having everyone in a group pay a little bit in order to amass funds to pay for whatever medical costs people in the group might incur.  Probably not the best long term solution, but it's what we've got.  Different illnesses and treatments have been added to these plans over time as more group members have shown to need coverage for more medical costs.  A lot of people have been denied coverage for the medical treatments that they actually need, after spending years paying into a plan that they didn't ever have to use.  It is only reasonable that these people expect that the service that they and their fellow taxpayers are paying for is actually going to be of some use to them.
     You should note that I did not say "their employer" or "their government"  See, employers who pay for their employees health insurance plans (whether in whole or in part) deduct those costs on their taxes, and use those deductions to offset monies they would have owed, so they aren't actually out that cash.  And the government, whether it is local, state, or federal, gets all of it's money from taxes paid by the citizen it governs.  Government isn't a person, any more than a corporation is.  So regardless of how a person's insurance premiums get paid, the money is originally coming from other people just like them.  It's basically one giant ass group plan being paid for by the entire country.  Like I said, communism.
       So, there are a bunch of people whining that they don't think that birth control is medically necessary, or moral, or that anyone should be forced to help subsidize the costs of another person gettin it on.  Guess what?  I'm not particularly hot on the idea of subsidizing the cancer treatments of other people who are in the same group plan as I am, but oh well.  Just because I personally feel very strongly about how much it's worth it to spend fighting a cancer diagnosis, doesn't mean that I begrudge anyone else the right to make that call for themselves.  We all pay our premiums, and deal with our own illnesses as we see fit.  It is supposed to be cheaper in the long run if we are all paying a little bit on the off chance that none of us gets really expensively sick, that's as far as my interest in what other people are using their insurance for goes.
       I am 31 years old.  I've had various forms of health insurance throughout my life, and paid various amounts of my money for that insurance.  I have also paid a substantial portion of the money that I have busted my ass working for in the form of various taxes that have gone into the bank account of the good ole US of A, earned some interest, and then been paid back out to help cover the costs of other people's health insurance and a whole lot of other things  During this time, I could have needed medical treatment or medication for about a million different illnesses and conditions, but I've actually only used my health insurance coverage one time for anything not related to my uterus.  That was when some crazy bitch who lived in the group home I worked at bit me, and actually my insurance only picked up the tab for some heavy duty antibiotics on that one, since I didn't want to pay out of pocket and have to dick with getting reimbursed by workman's comp.
        Where the hell does someone get off telling me that I should not have the right to participate in an insurance plan that covers the only medical condition I have thus far ever had (either preventing pregnancy or birthing the end result of pregnancies I didn't prevent) when countless thousands of my hard earned dollars are going towards paying for others to get coverage for medical treatments (and other shit) that I not only don't need, but would not use even if I did?  Sure, I could just not have sex, ever, even when my husbands have wanted to, just to be damn sure that I didn't get knocked up.  Paula Deen could lay off the damn butter too.  If she doesn't have to, then I don't see how it is anyone's
          Fuck you, Rush Limbaugh.