Why are the Pill & Viagra Disparate Issues?

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. ~Faith Whittlesey

Why does women's health insurance cost so much more than men's? Even taking the maternity package out of the picture, women's heath insurance costs on average two-thirds more than men's. And yet, despite the fact that we have to pay a huge add-on for maternity coverage, contraceptive measures are often not covered. The good ones, the best Pill, the one that makes physical symptoms of menstruation fade like a bad memory? That Pill isn't covered. But the one that makes you even more nauseated and bloated and does not a single thing to control cramps? Yep, they'll pay for that one. But can you guess how long Viagra was on the US market before being covered by a majority of health insurers? Two weeks. And at a time when the only covered contraceptive device for women was sterilization. Now, I'm all for better, longer-lasting erections, but should that really equate to stunted measures of population control?

Insurers say that it is because women USE their insurance, going to the doctors regularly, that they pay more for it. Apparently, men's insurance costs begin to rise when they reach late middle age, because they didn't visit doctors frequently enough before that and by that time have developed health problems that require monitoring and continuous treatment. Does all this seem as counterproductive to you as it does to me?

And don't worry. I'm not about to break into the whole abortion rights issue except to point out that if an old white man was told he couldn't care for his body any way he wished, he'd kick up a fit, too. I do not begin to understand why this is a legislated issue. Seriously. And now I'm going to slowly back away from the "A" word. For now.

But get with me on this. Take a look at health care issues and turn the tables on these rules. Would men allow others to force them to make incredibly personal choices based on politics? Would they pay lots more money for the privilege of seeing a doctor and then accept an inferior prescriptive product because the one that really worked was exorbitantly priced? Would they sit back and watch the other half of the species revel in their newly extended orgasmic capabilities while no one produced anything remotely similar for them? I'm guessing not. Women, why do we let it happen to us?