Barbara Boxer: Why no Viagra complaints?

[WillowTree]

46. That argument is just as bogus as.......

.......the apples-to-oranges comparison between the individual mandate in ACA and the requirement for car owners to maintain auto insurance that keeps getting thrown around.

The purpose of medical insurance as it was originally (you'll pardon the expression) conceived is to provide treatment of disease or injury. ED is a physical malfunction that Viagara and its brother drugs deal with, but do not cure, just as insulin, which does not cure diabetes, is covered because helps diabetics to maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Likewise, contraceptives, when prescribed to treat dysmenorrhea and sometimes endometriosis, is covered by insurance because in those cases, they are treating a disease. Argue that if you want, but you would be wrong. But when prescribed for contraceptive purposes, they do not, no matter how some individuals up-thread wish to twist it. In that circumstance, some plans with more liberal coverage for "routine" services have covered them for quite some time, other plans never have.

And it's as simple as that. Buy it, don't buy it. I really don't care. Doesn't change the fact that that's the way it is.

It is what it is. I won't be back to this thread to argue it.