@Zincy
First off, I found the democrats posturing on it to be highly suspect. Whining of the rising of cost for the drug being made over the counter? To quote from the same article I linked before:
“You can make birth control available over the counter in every pharmacy in America, but if it still costs $600 a year, it will be out of reach for many women,” Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told reporters.
“ We have to be very careful not to put political pressure on the FDA without going through the regular process, “ Murray said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) today announced victory in their efforts to force the FDA to make a decision regarding the over-the-counter application of Plan B emergency contraceptives. The Senators issued the following statement on the news from Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt that the FDA will act on Plan B’s application by September 1, 2005:
“It is long past time that the American people had a decision on Plan B and the FDA has finally agreed to give women across the country what we have fought for from the beginning – a yes or no decision. After more than two years of waiting, American consumers and American women will finally get an answer.
While we continue to have concerns about the lack of leadership and independent decision-making that Dr. Crawford and the FDA have shown in this case, we have been clear all along that our hold on this nomination is about one thing only: the FDA’s failure to provide an answer on Plan B.
As we have now received a date for a decision on Plan B, we have agreed to release our hold on Dr. Crawford’s nomination.
Because the actual bill was to force insurance companies to continue to provide for contraceptives, as without the mandate numerous insurers actually refused to cover the costs of birth control. This led to many women having to either pay out of pocket, or seek additional insurance outside of their company policy. Which added extra costs for maintaining a safe lifestyle.
Would the Republican bill have forced the abandonment of those coverage or was it just a begin bill to make birth control over the counter? I have noted in my yeeeeeeeeee old text file* from the 2015 I noted at the time that it did not do anything other then birth control pills over the counter, thus rendering the Democratic panic on the subject “THEY OFFERED BIRTHCONTROL PILLS! SHIELD YOUR EYES LEAST THEY DECEIVE YOU!”. Though I cannot confirm this as both the article I have backed up and the link I had to the source text are dead links and don’t appear to be archived nor I was able to a link to the Republican bill elsewhere. Even if I concede that the Democrats are right making the drug over the makes it more expensive and the Republican bill being bad all around why not up the ante and expand access anyway in their own bill while also keeping it covered? I’ll give the Democrats some leeway if it was just a denial of a victory for the Republicans them to be able to claim cover over their attempt to except Religious employees but I think a bit more lobbying is at hand here to the established interests around Obammacare.
*note: I store a lot of bookmarks in text files with various subjects I have researched or at least vaguely tracked in the past. It is not as impressive as it sounds and some are pretty cluttered and scattered. This one I just happened to have one hand
*note2: As an aside, I have been also supportive of more obscure efforts like allowing the pharmacist to write the prescription, though that is somewhat offtopic I suppose atm.
*note3: I really would like to expand on the politics of what is going on with my side and birth control over the past 20 years or so, hypocrisies and all, ran out of time for today, and possibly for a little while, IRL junk.