Health Insurance and Contraception..... did you know?

[boston bean]

I work in a medical office where I get prior authorizations for patients to get surgery and/or prescription medications.

Many times, I have to get prior authorizations for birth control pills for our patients from their insurance companies. For some reason or another the insurance doesn't cover that pill and wants to prescribe a generic and sometimes the patients own health insurance policy forbids them from obtaining any medication or procedure that can be used for contraception.

I am shocked sometimes to see that some of these policies are held by people that work for towns or municipalities.

Everytime I run across one, it really irks me. Who are these people, whether in private or public business that have to have that type of control over their employees lives and bodies. I often wonder if these women know that this is the type of policy they hold. All they know is that their insurance doesn't cover it.

But I am sure their employers know that they have that written into the policy.

I am just shocked that this type of thinking has made it that far into our society.

[Warpy]

1. Prepare to be more shocked

because those same misogynist insurance companies will pick up the tab for limp dick drugs like Viagra and Cialis and baldness remedies like Rogaine.

Let's see, life saving drugs like birth control meds versus life STYLE drugs like Viagra, yep, no contest.

The towns went for the cheapest plans they could get. Um hum, eliminating the most basic care for half the people on that plan will sure make it cheaper.

[knitter4democracy]

2. I used to be on one of those plans.

When I taught at a Catholic girls school, our plan specifically said that it would not pay for any contraception medicine or device. That wasn't a suprise, but the fine print that said they also wouldn't pay for any surgery that caused me to be infertile, even to save my life, was. My life was worth less to them than my fertility. I shocked the teachers' lunchroom the day I read that one out loud and asked if the union had fought it. No one knew about it. Not even to save our lives.

[SharonAnn]

3. No hysterectomy for uterine cancer? Wow!!

[Trillo]

4. Marriage isn't about love, it's about children,

or so said some repub in a context against gay marriage.

One apparent translation: "The harder BC pills are to get, the more likely kids will result." Curious that it seems to fit so out of context from the quote.

Since there seems to be documentation of harassment and failure to cover BC pills, maybe they should be available over the counter, subsidized so they're dirt cheap or even free, and so they can be purchased with cash and without electronic record keeping that by its nature is coupled with personal identification.

I'm sure there are other solutions, but making nearly all drugs, except those that are scheduled (addicting), available OTC may help a lot of people financially, whether they're old or young.

It seems the BC pill difficulty is deliberate denial under some current health plans coupled with some political desire to expand the populace for financial gain.

The financial gain aspect dovetails with the corporatist beast that's been created than skims each of us at every identified opportunity to do so.