So, let me get this straight...If your employer wants you to pay for your own birth control...

[LuckyTheDog]

... You should just suck it up or find another job.

But if your co-workers all vote to pay union dues, that's an outrage against individual liberty.

Do I have that about right?

[Angry Dragon]

1. Welcome to the United States of Corporations and Religion

[CAPHAVOC]

12. Foolishness

Why is it that no one sees what is really going on? The higher the cost of Health Care the more the Insurance Companies make with ACA. They get 20% off the top.

[HockeyMom]

2. Job Applicant

Excuse me, Mr. Businessowner, are you Catholic? Are you morally opposed to birth control? Are employees going to have this question BEFORE they accept a job?

[DefenseLawyer]

3. And if your employer is a Christian Scientist...

you're really fucked.

[ParkieDem]

9. All the more reason ...

to DE-LINK health insurance and health care from employment. Why do we have to stick with this dumb system?

[badtoworse]

4. If you knew that was the deal going in, why would you accept the job in the first place?

[Angry Dragon]

15. One may just want to eat

Seeing that there are so many jobs out there.

[DefenseLawyer]

16. Well sure, since everyone has 4 or 5 jobs to choose from

why not just choose another? What's the weather like on your planet?

[badtoworse]

20. Everyone's situation is different and different employer's offer different benefits packages

Every job I've ever had (I'm on my 10th over a 40 year career) offered a different package. I've turned down jobs because I didn't like the offer.

[DefenseLawyer]

22. And you think your circumstances are typical?

Or are you just saying "it wouldn't effect me, so fuck everybody else" or are you trying to make some other point that's completely lost on me?

[badtoworse]

26. Yes I do

That fact that I've had a number of jobs or that I've turned down crappy offers is irrelevant. The point is that everyone should evaluate the entire job offer before deciding to sell their services. That is true whether it's minimum wage or 9 figures.

My wife tells me that when she was taking them, birth control pills cost about $20 - $30 per month - let's call it $300 per year. Annual deductibles on different health care plans can vary by more than that and base salary for similar jobs can vary by a lot more than that. From a cost standpoint, it's not a big deal and I doubt that not having birth control pills covered would drive anyone's decision to accept or reject a job. Would the presence or absence of any other $300 per year benefit drive anyone's decision about a job offer? I strongly doubt that too.

[SharonAnn]

23. But they may not tell you "the deal". Or "the deal" may change with a new boss.

[csziggy]

25. Or "the deal" may change with the calendar year

My husband has been working at the same place for ten years. About eight years ago it was sold to a large corporation. Since then the health insurance has not been the same company for more than two years. And even when it stays with the same insurance company, the package changes every year.

Too bad we are not in a situation where he can tell them where to put their increasingly degraded coverage. Right now I am waiting to hear from a surgeon to see if he will do knee replacement for what our insurance will pay.

If not, I will either have to wait to see what they offer next year (living with the pain that increases every week) or go to the less competent orthopedic surgeon that is in the insurance companies' network and hope I am not one of the patients he screws up.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Get this straight ... if health care is part of your compensation ...

then IT BELONGS TO YOU! Letting arseholes frame the debate is for losers.

[unblock]

6. note also that no one fights for the "liberties" of minority shareholders.

ceos can do just about anything as long as they the support of the majority of shareholders (of which the ceo is often a big part).
minority shareholders get a few specific rights, mostly these only come into play if the ceo causes them to take a financial loss.

but if minority shareholders object to individual such decisions as denying birth control to employees, there's really nothing they can do other than selling the shares. no one ever talks about THEIR rights being trampled on.

in short, everyone seems fine with a ceo bargaining on the collective behalf of all shareholders, even if some minority shareholders don't like it. but somehow, labor unions, where one guy negotiates on the collective behalf of all workers, that's completely different.

[ParkieDem]

8. Well,

that's because if you're a minority shareholder in a public company, you can always sell your shares if you don't like what the company is doing.

[unblock]

13. same goes for workers. if you don't like it (the boss or the union), you can switch jobs.

but somehow, the solution to protect minority rights for workers is to break the union rather than let them go work elsewhere.
but no one talks about reorganizing companies so that minority owners have more say.

also, minority shareholders may not easily sell. if the company is publicly traded, with enough volume, then yes, you could get out easily. but if it's a closely held company, no such luck. your shares might even be restricted and you can't sell at all.

[badtoworse]

11. There are disadvantages to being in the minority

The biggest one is that you don't always get your way.

If I was a shareholder, unhappy with management, and the Board wasn't addressing the problem, I'd sell my shares. Then I'd invest in a company whose policies I'm happy with.

[unblock]

14. the point is, by analogy, if you're unhappy with your labor union, you should just work elsewhere

but somehow, republicans and the right-wing powers that be insist that the solution for the rights of workers who want not to be in a union is to break the union.

minority worker rights trampled on? break the union
minority shareholder rights trampled on? go sell your shares.

it's not parallel.

[badtoworse]

17. The two situations are not analogous

You don't need to belong to an investor's union to buy and sell shares of stock.

[unblock]

18. to own shares IS to belong to an investor's union

that is exactly what a corporation is. a union of investors.

[HappyMe]

7. I don't recall my insurance ever paying

for my bc pills. The doctor visit was covered fully.
I worked for ad agencies and a law firm.

[DefenseLawyer]

19. That's why the change caused such a stir

The rules changed to require insurance plans to cover it where they didn't before.

[SharonAnn]

24. But Viagra, etc. were covered. My IUD was covered, but not BC pills. Go figure!

A friend of mine who was head of an HR department at a Fortune company had to fight to geth BC pills covered for their employees.

She pointed out that it was Risk Mitigation! It was cheaper to pay for BC pills than to pay for deliveries of babies and the insurance for them after they were born.

She finally got BC pills covered but could hardly believe how strongly the male executives fought it.

[EC]

10. Yep,

And good luck if your employer is a Christian Science believer.