Friday, March 10, 2017

And Here We Go Again! Why Should Guys Pay For Prenatal Care in Insurance?



I love this idiocy, I love it.  My earlier explanation for the many reasons why insurance makes us pay for all sorts of stuff we ourselves don't consume can be found in this earlier post.

But Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) didn't read that post, sadly, and so he put his big, hairy foot in his mouth:


The law also required plans to cover pregnancy and childbirth. That’s where the fireworks started in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
“What mandate in the Obamacare bill does he take issue with?” Doyle asked Shimkus, using the formal parlance of congressional committees.
“What about men having to purchase prenatal care?” Shimkus said.
At that point, one could hear the room start to stir.
“I’m just . . . is that not correct?” Shimkus said. “And should they?”
As I wrote before, I will from now on refuse to pay for any treatment that I would never need:  Prostate cancer, testicular cancer, male impotence treatments, vasectomies,  male hair loss treatments, the treatment of genetic diseases that can't be found in my genetic inheritance, treatment for any accidents caused by hazardous sports I don't participate in (skydiving, water-skiing, mountaineering, racing), the treatment of any tropical disease (to be changed if I myself choose to travel in the tropics) etc..

And as I wrote before, prenatal treatment should probably be paid by the child who is going to be born, because most of it is to benefit that child.  Why would the women be lumbered with all of it?  Since the child cannot pay yet, why shouldn't the man whose child it will be also pay for that treatment?  Parents, in general, are supposed to support their children financially.

Rep. Shimkus was never born, of course.  He was formed from the primordial slime by some chance event, I assume.

But mostly I love Shimkus's statement because it is such a clear example of how the right thinks about reproduction:  It's the wimminz job, and no, we are not going to make any part of it easier.  No, we are not going to have paid maternity leaves, no, we are not going to stop pregnancy discrimination, no, we are not going to let women have reproductive choice.  And no, we are not going to pay for any of it.