Kathleen Sebelius: 'Men often do need maternity care'

Submitted by Mastodon on Wed, 2013-10-30 17:17

Story here. Excerpt:

'During Wednesday's congressional testimony, a heated exchange occurred between Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius over one of the still-unexploded controversies in the ObamaCare law: the fact that ObamaCare's so-called "robust" coverage is in reality your government forcing you to pay for coverage that includes expensive services millions will never need. Ellmers called Sebelius out specifically for forcing men to buy maternity coverage.
...
Sebelius: The individual policies cover families. Men often do need maternity care for their spouses and for their families, yes.

Ellmers: A single make [sic, should read "male"], aged 32, does need maternity coverage. To the best of your knowledge, has a man ever delivered a baby?'

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Comments

Was just thinking about this yesterday, in fact. It'd be like a motorcycle policy requiring side-car insurance along with the bike, even if you had a model that you couldn't even modify (without substantial overhaul such that it looks little like it did before) to have a side-car attachable to it. I think it's an apt analogy.

Or how about this: Just what's a 70-YO woman going to do with a maternity benefit, either? Answer: Nothing!

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2013-10-30 17:35

Sorry, can't get behind this one. Men don't pay for maternity, women dont' pay for testicular cancer. Men don't pay for breast cancer, women won't pay for prostrate cancer. Old people don't pay for pregnancy care, young people don't pay for arthritis.

At a certain point we've ignored the whole idea of risk pooling.

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Submitted by ItsDan on Wed, 2013-10-30 19:59

... when the insurance seems to go in favor of females in terms of lower premiums, the industry/the ACA is fine with letting them pay less than men. For example, men under 25 pay more for car insurance than women under 25 because, it's said, they get into more accidents than women in that age group. This is something that's been accepted for decades. The ACA now prohibits insurers from charging women more in premiums; previously, the typical female health ins. policyholder paid more than a man in her same age group generally simply because women on average consume more healthcare services by total cost than men.

But nevermind the facts-- when they lean against the interests of women. However if they lean in favor of women, those facts are admitted. Simple nymphotropism at work.

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-10-31 04:04

Where I live, car insurance can't charge you more based on gender, I do realize that's true in many places though. I just feel it's a weird line to start drawing when you want to pool risk but then unpool the risk by particular demographics.

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Submitted by ItsDan on Thu, 2013-10-31 12:06