President Barack Obama’s health care plan has caused uproar from the GOP since its inception in 2010. Conservative commentators attack their least favorite provisions in the media in an effort to reversethe law’s initiation. Now that contraception has entered the picture,tensions between Democrats and Republicans won’t yield any time soon.
Because the law is still being built upon by the Obama administration, certain provisions have not yet come into effect due to the fact that they need planning and predetermined regulations. At the same time, members of Congress oppose such provisions and try to prevent them from being implemented if they, say, don’t align with conservative values. This is what should be expected in 2014 when the issues of birth control and abortion inevitably arise.
Under “Obamacare,” insurers could possibly be required to cover birth control in their policies because it qualifies as a preventative measure. As one of his main points during the health care reform debate, Obama stressed the importance of preventative measures in all parts of medicine. It would make sense, then, that this ideal would apply to contraception if not for the mere sake of being consistent.
According to Salon.com, anti-contraception proponents from the Catholic Church and the Family Research Council have expressed disdainfor the idea on moral grounds. From their perspective, birth control is used on the basis of individual choice, sometimes for the wrong reasons. They’re absolutely entitled to that point of view regardless of how reactionary it may appear to outsiders. For many religious Americans, “preventative measures” has a negative connotation. The idea of having to pay for contraception as a component of their medical insurance is probably equal to a slap in the face.
On the other hand, medical insurance covers a long list of options. That’s the point of insurance. Some insurers cover Viagra, which may interfere with certain peoples’ religious ethics. For right now, the devil is in the details: if birth control is made free for all or most women, how will that change the way American women (and men) have sex? Will the number of STDs increase? It’s tricky when laws, money and sex are combined. For now, health care administrators just have to concentrate on maneuvering their provisions into law without offending the entire country.
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