This is the latest piece of propaganda we received at our house.
If you can't see it, it says:
"End discrimination against women. Covers pre-natal screenings and well-baby care for free."
Look at the small print under the left-side headline:
"Starting January 1, 2014, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to discriminate against women by charging us more than men."
"ObGyn Provided and Other Preventive Services for FREE"
"Complete Coverage for Contraception"
"Well baby, well child and preventive care for pregnant women with no co-pays."
The whole study is referenced from the Affordable Health Care Act, which is from the law itself and bears no comparative discussion, fact checking or truth telling.
Lucky for you, I am here to help.
1) I don't know how else to put this, but NOTHING IS FREE. NOTHING IS FREE. NOTHING IS FREE. For a person to receive health care that isn't paid for one of three things needs to happen.
A) The doctor or hospital doesn't get paid, which means the staff doesn't get paid, rent doesn't get paid, equipment goes obsolete and the doctor eventually quits and works at WalMart. Ok, so that won't happen - but the truth isn't far behind. Insurance companies negotiate health care at pennies on the dollar which means doctors and their staff have to see large volumes of people to maintain their practices, which means lower quality of care. It's a doctor's cattle call.
B) The hospital absorbs the costs. See letter A.
C) The rest of of share the costs. DING DING DING! There's the answer.
For a person to pay nothing for health care means they have to have an insurance plan, which isn't free, or if they don't have insurance, the money is being paid by someone else's insurance plan - in fact, nearly 35% of your insurance premium goes to pay for the deficits in someone else's health care. So what may be free for one person, gets paid for by someone else.
Now - let's dig into this discrimination crap.
What do you think is a more complicated machine? A skateboard or a bicycle? In theory, which of the two may require a more complicated fix-it strategy? Which machine has the potential for higher repair costs?
Well, a skateboard has a platform to stand on and solid rubber tires with some minor tilt-steering ability. A bicycle has multiple gears, tires with inner-tubes, moving gears, steering and brakes. The bicycle is the more complex machine and on average it costs more to maintain the bicycle over the skateboard.
Women are the female of the species which means they are the baby-makers. Men can't do that. Men are skateboards. Women are bicycles. Traditionally, the female body requires more maintenance than the male body. Yes, there are risks in both... a woman can get breast cancer (so can a man albeit less likely) while a man could get prostate cancer, while a woman can get cervical cancer, while a man can get testicular cancer. But men don't have periods, don't require pap exams, don't need mammograms, don't have ovarian cysts, don't have ectopic pregnancies and are less susceptible to bladder infections. Being a woman and being responsible about taking care of yourself as a woman is more intensive, thus is more expensive to take care of because you just plain require more care than a man does, all other health issues being equal.
NOT ALL HUMANS ARE CREATED EQUAL. People are different, their genders are different, their motivations are different, their goals are different and dammit - life isn't fair. The idea that everyone should be treated equally as their health care is concerned is seriously stupid. I don't smoke, use drugs or eat fried food for every meal. I'm not obese, I don't put myself at physical risk and I'm not a female. Not everybody is like me, so they shouldn't be expected to have the same health care expenses that I do, thus, they shouldn't expect to pay the same that I do.
Did you know that statistically men pay more for their car insurance than women? It's just because they're men. At one time, there were more men on the road than women because women just didn't drive. Nowadays, the numbers are much more equal, as are the statistics regarding traffic violations and car accidents - yet men continue to pay more just because they're men. I think people should pay higher insurance rates if they're risky drivers, not because of gender. Risky drivers cost more than safe drivers.
Women cost more than men to take care of too. It's not a position of hate or discrimination and doctors are not holding your gender against you. Women are complicated machines and it takes a little more work to keep them healthy and working properly.
And that's the way I see it.
