Thursday, July 10, 2014

SexistCare©

There's a lot of talk about women's and children's health, and that's fine. But something that seems to have gone unremarked is men's health issues. Here's what I mean:

All ACA-compliant plans must include a laundry list of Essential Health Benefits, including very specific preventive care coverage. In fact, the list of services that must be covered with no out-of-pocket (deductible, co-pay or co-insurance) includes well over 60 such items, and specifically 22 for "[c]omprehensive coverage for women’s preventive care," and over two dozen more for "children’s preventive health services."

Notice the missing category?

So for all this talk about covering birth control convenience items and mammograms (to name but two), there is no corresponding requirement to cover, say, prostate exams or even STD screening for XY'ers. Adding insult to injury, there is no provision for charging us different (lower)  rates, even though there are specific benefits which we cannot access (eg Cervical Cancer screening).

Where's the hue and cry?
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