Health overhaul may lead to free birth control

Health overhaul may lead to free birth control

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Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may be on the horizon: free contraception for women in the U.S., thanks to the new health care law.
How the Obama administration will apply the law remains to be seen. It could allow insurance plans wide discretion on meeting the coverage requirement. A panel convened by the Institute of Medicine will hold its first meeting Nov. 16 to begin work on recommendations to HHS. The department has until next August to make its decision.

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This is a firestorm waiting to happen. I can foresee scores of those on the far right screaming that this is not only a waste of "their" tax dollars for immoral purposes. But I can also see those on the far left trying to use this as a means of trying to get even more coverage for controversial issues.

My own opinion is that birth control is not a bad idea at all in terms of being included in any healthcare coverage. The costs of dealing with this after the fact is by far and away higher than allowing people to prevent the situation in the first place.

This also would help deal with even more divisive and painful issues, such as abortion and might even lower the number of new mothers receiving welfare and medicare benefits.

In my opinion this is an issue we should all think about and even contact our congressmen about, no matter what our views on the subject.

The article spoke about this possibly being a means for people to have access to more expensive forms of birth control. I would ask that anyone with an interest in this educate themselves about these options and weigh out whether or not we, as a society, would find these options to be more desirable or if the cost outweighs the potential benefits.

If it helps with a variety of social programs and leads to safer options for women, then maybe politics might be put aside for the greater good.

Then again, maybe I'm hoping for too much here...

~Heff

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(visit the link for the full news article)

A little known fact about insurance pre-Obamacare is that often times sterilization services were covered, yet fertility services were not. I think that policy will continue and contraception in the plan is absolutely a necessity for TPTB...one more avenue to lower population. Just like abortion. The right got mad, the Gov't said oh no no no we aren't covering abortions, but now investigators are starting to find that it is being covered.
Who knows, maybe we'll find someday that the contraception provided isn't reversible! They're doing it in 3rd world countries with sterilizing "vaccines" (It's to early for me to provide links, was widely discussed here on ATS).

Sterility is more important because the truth is many children are born to parents who cannot pay their own expenses, and who may in consequence lead a life surrounded by alcohol and drug addictions. They also never 'planned' the pregnancy...much like how I bet they didn't plan on their current circumstances. If sterilization were available at no or minimal cost it would undoubtedly reduce the number of abortions taking place in this country.
People pay taxes to support the welfare system...a system that is all too often abused. People can easily cheat the program by simply having more children, by having more children means more money in the mail...and that's tax money we're talking about.

While it is unfortunate that a lot of couples are unable to have children, one of the most obvious and most humanitarian solutions would be adoption.

reply to post by blamethegreys


Yes, I agree. If not irreversible then they may at least encourage, if not mandate the longer types of BC. Such as the devices that prevent pregnancy for years. If the birthrate is even slightly reduced, and the death rate slightly increased (read medicare and SS cuts for the elderly) that is a fool proof design to reduce population. Would take a long time though and not sure if that plays into the grand scheme of the earths elite.