Viagra and Health Insurance
Jordan Freeman
In early October, President Donald Trump rolled back the Affordable Care Act’s mandates that insurers were to cover birth control at no cost. This move was met with stark criticism, especially with the argument of how Viagra, a medication commonly known for solving erectile disfunction, had been covered by health insurers since 1998. The pill was covered under health insurance after being on the market for only two months, since sales for the pill hit astronomical numbers and many insurance companies feared it would be targeted by black market sales. The problems with the attacks on birth control is it all stems on one key issue: religious freedom.
Hobby Lobby, a for-profit organization with strong secular ties, sued and brought their claim to the Supreme Court. They cited that the mandate violated their religious freedom rights. The court ruled in Hobby Lobby’s favor, which started the battle for many for-profit and non-profits to take up cases against the mandate under the guise of religious freedom.
Because of President Trump’s actions “62 million women, who were able to gain access to birth control at no cost, are put at risk. Because birth control was no cost, more than 1.4 billion dollars were saved in just a year alone.” While Trump has claimed his administration’s focus is to “Make America Great Again,” his actions against birth control are going to cost citizens of the United States billions of dollars. Birth control pills cost more than $600 without insurance coverage. Trump’s actions against birth control and contraception are not the first of its kind.
In the case of Neil Noesen v. State of Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing, Pharmacy Examining Board, Noesen refused to refill the prescription for birth control pills for Amanda Renz. He based his decision on his own personal religious beliefs. As a result, Renz had to use a back-up method of birth control. During the Bush administration, the Weldon Amendment was introduced. Written by Republican Dr. Dave R. Weldon, the Amendment allowed the religious beliefs of one health care practitioner to limit the reproductive choices of women who came seeking abortion services. It also made it so that health care practitioners did not have to tell clients they did not perform abortions and did not provide an explicit health exception for women seeking abortion services.
Birth control and the fight against women’s reproductive rights were not always targeted as harshly as they are now. Back in the mid-1930’s, the International Workers Order (IWO) played a big part as being one of the first insurers to include contraception in their benefits. An annual fee of $4 a year for members included a general examination, a gynecological examination, the prescribed contraceptive supplies, and a year’s worth of unlimited follow-up visits. For people who were not members, they could enroll for $5 a year. If you were a part of a union but not a member of the IWO, you could pay the member fee of $4. The IWO also made it its mission to pass legislation that would help those in need of insurance.
In 1943, the IWO petitioned to have the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill passed. The bill called for comprehensive, universal coverage for all Americans. The bill had legs and even President Truman kept it a priority. However, dreams for the bill becoming legislation were dashed when the Cold War began. The idea of having universal healthcare was linked in support of Communism. Under the McCarthy era, IWO suffered as it was founded by members of the Communist party. Soon, the organization was being blacklisted and different forms of government were calling against it, bringing up investigations and seemingly dismantling it brick by brick. The IWO shutdown operations in 1951.
In the aftermath of the IWO, legislation has been introduced to try and solve the contraception problem. One of the most well-known is the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act (EPICC) was first introduced in 1997, almost a year before Viagra was covered under insurance. To this day, the bill has yet to be passed. Senator Harry Reid has claimed, “we find ourselves in the inexplicable situation where most insurance policies pay for Viagra but not for prescription contraceptives that prevent unintentional pregnancies and abortions.” EPICC’s made goal was to close the loopholes created by legal decisions and state laws.
Title VII, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees, was used in a 2001 case in which a woman believed her employer violated her rights. They stated, “women need (equal medical care) to prevent pregnancy less favorably than it treats medical care needed to prevent other medical conditions that are no greater threat to employees’ health than is pregnancy.” However, Title VII does not cover businesses with fewer than 15 employees.
Many states still have no laws mandating contraceptive equity, and of states that do have them, 15 include “conscience clauses” that exempt religious employers from complying. Moreover, about half of workers with health insurance benefits are enrolled in plans that their employer purchased through an insurance company; the other half have employers who self-insure. The state laws only apply to insurance company plans, whereas self-insured plans are regulated by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Under President Trump, the idea of attacking birth control and contraception based on religious freedom is slowly on the rise. With Viagra seemingly being a pill that will be forever covered under insurance, given its popularity when it was first mass-marketed and how that popularity has endured, it is disheartening seeing the ongoing struggle birth control must endure. However, with the court’s ruling that people like Neil cannot stop Renz from filling her prescription based on his religious freedoms and more Americans questioning why Viagra is covered under insurance but not birth control, perhaps the country is on the right track. Maybe a resurgence of places like the IWO is on the horizon.
