Someone explain why we need planned parenthood if everyone is mandated to have health insurance?

Question

Someone explain why we need planned parenthood if everyone is mandated to have health insurance?

Answer 1

Sure, if you can actually afford mandated health insurance. Just because there's an insurance mandate doesn't mean everyone actually has health insurance. I live in MA and we have an insurance mandate, but if you can't afford healthcare, you get a $2500 fine.



If you're poor and can't afford healthcare, how are you gonna afford the fine? If you don't have healthcare, how are you going to get your exams and hpv vaccine?



So yeah, Planned Parenthood is still a good thing to have for poor women who can't afford healthcare, even if it's mandated.

Answer 2

Even if it passes into law that health insurance is mandatory for all in the US, my family still won't be able to afford it. So we won't have it. The government mandating something like that is preposterous too (in my opinion) especially since it would make NO sense to force people who can't afford insurance to instead pay a ridiculous fine.



I don't mind Planned Parenthood (though I tend to agree with Ms. Manners).

What I *do* mind is that most Planned Parenthood facilities don't require a minor child to have parental consent to get access to birth control, STD testing, and abortion services. I think that parents need to know what's going on in case something happens to their minor child.



Also, I have a midwife. I don't go to a ob/gyn and probably never will again unless I *have* to. I get my exams through her for about $75 (that's for a yearly exam), so that's not too bad at all for my situation. As for the HPV vaccine, I refuse to get it and I refuse to give it to my daughters. There's not enough long term research to know the full effects of the vaccine.



As for the birth control thing, well condoms aren't expensive. If someone can't afford prescribed contraceptives, then they can get a 25 pack of condoms for $8-10. No condoms aren't awesome when it comes to "heat of the moment" sex, but it's still contraceptive and it's still available with no discrimination to anyone who purchases them.



Sadly most people who have consensual sex won't stop and take a minute to put on a condom and they use the "heat of the moment" excuse, so they rely on something they don't have to think about. My husband and I have no choice to *but* to be responsible, so when we don't want a baby we use condoms and Natural Family Planning. Does it suck to have to use a condom? Eh, yeah. Is remembering a condom better than having an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy? DEFINITELY.

Answer 3

Planned Parenthood is an *option*. And people should have options. And even with mandated insurance, many women will still turn to PP for exams and BC, and abortions. Just because something is mandated, does not mean people will have it. If they cannot afford insurance now, what's to say they can afford it later? Just because the government says they HAVE to have it, they can magically conjure up the money?



Even with insurance, some things still might be more cost effective from another source. My mother often went to PP for her exams and BC rather than her actual doctor. They were also more open to suggestions and had more options for her. Her doctor was old fashioned and didn't really approve of BC, so it was good that she had somewhere else to go.



Another thing another answer made me think of: The debates about insurance not covering BC or reproductive coverage on religious grounds, or employers imposing on their employees privacy, demanding to know HOW they are using their BC. What of that? What if the "mandated insurance" DOESN'T cover birth control, or any thing that falls under sexual recreation (STDs, education, exams, certain types of cancer or screenings, vaccines...) Hell, if the insurance simply didn't want to pay for something, they could spin any condition that happens in the genital region as "sexual" and not cover it.

Answer 4

Even at this juncture, we don't "need" PP. There are plenty of private women's centers that provide the same services at little to no cost on a sliding scale. I never went to PP, but I did get my annual gyno exams for $15 a pop and BC pills for $10 a month when I was in college and had no money and no health insurance. PP just happens to be the largest service provider, and is government run.

Answer 5

I just don't get why the govt would give out free ***** control but not free cold medicine for example.

Answer 6

Because as of right now, not everybody has health insurance, and in this country there are regular debates about whether or not health insurance should cover (and to what extent it should cover) things related to women's health like birth control. Right now for many women, Planned Parenthood is the ONLY place they can go to get affordable health care like exams, the HPV vaccine, birth control, and yes, abortions. Until everyone actually has health insurance and until that health insurance completely covers ALL aspects of women's health, we will need places like Planned Parenthood to make sure that women have access to affordable, quality health care than meets their needs.

Answer 7

Although it is mandated that everyone is to have health insurance, there will be loopholes where employers will not have to offer insurance if they are a small business,this is what I am guessing. The same thing happened when minimum wage went up.

I was working for a business at that time that had less than 10 employees and the owner of the business did not have to pay his employees the new minimum wage until later than other companies in the same area that had more employees.

While we do not necessarily need planned parenthood, we will need places that offer services on a sliding fee scale . We have heath centers in my area that do such a thing, it is not just family planning services, it is also doctor visits, etc. In fact there is not a planned parenthood in my area at all.

Another thing is the government/ state you live in, is more than likely going to offer health coverage to adults and children at a reduced price like they already do in my state. My employer does not offer coverage, I do not make enough to buy it on my own, however in the state of pennsylvania, I am able to purchase at a reduced price coverage for myself and my children. Before I knew about this I was going to the health center and paying for visits on a sliding fee scale. Now I go there and pay co-pays.

Why do I still go there...because there are not many doctors in my area that will accept the insurance that I have and the other ones that do the wait time to get an appointment can be crazy, especially when you have a child who is sick, and the other reason would be that many doctors in my area are simply not taking any new patients.

Answer 8

Because like it or not, women have a right to make choices for their own reproductive health. Wouldn't you rather a teen girl go to PP for birth control because she's afraid of her parents finding out from a health insurance bill, than to go without birth control?



*Are you people for real?

When I was 18 and living on my own I had no insurance. I had no car, no cable, no internet, no house phone. I had a cheap pre-pay cell phone and no luxuries. Do you really think I could afford $10 a month birth control? Hell to the no. I walked my @$$ down to planned parenthood and got free birth control.



You're all welcome- because of that, I don't have a kid soaking up welfare and foodstamps.

Answer 9

if everyone had comprehensive health insurance with affordable co-pays? we wouldn't.



as so many people are so vehemently opposed to that concept that it's pretty much never going to happen? we're probably better off with a safety net than not, don't you think?





*if the thumbs down are from those who think that a politically and legally tenuous law that requires minimal (not comprehensive) insurance OR payment of a fine is the same as everyone's having comprehensive health insurance with affordable co-pays, i beg to differ ... also as a citizen of massachusetts, where we have something similar. better coverage than many americans have now? yes. universal coverage for all medical needs? hardly. and that's even assuming we make it to 2014 with it still standing.

Answer 10

The truth is that we have never needed them.



There have always been government programs for those who could not otherwise afford medical care.



I managed to get through my entire life, even when I was poor and could not afford medical insurance, without ever setting foot in a Planned Parenthood office.



(Nice....so the government is going to fine people who can't afford health care, and who supposedly can't afford $10 a month for birth control. That makes perfect sense. :oP)

Answer 11

We dont have mandated insurance for 2 more advantageous years. planned Parenthood does not settle for insurance. planned Parenthood grants uninsured women persons health care amenities. There are inner most businesses for ailment like the yankee maximum cancers Society and Susan G. Komen, so why not planned Parenthood ? They take donations, they dont settle for insurance or authorities subsidies.

Answer 12

We aren't mandated to have health insurance - that doesn't even start until 2014 and thanks to right wing anti-choice fascists like yourself, health plans aren't required to cover all the services that they provide.

Answer 13

Those that can't legally be covered and those that choose to pay the fine instead of being covered.

Answer 14

in the uk we get our healthcare fro free on the nhs girls get the hpv vaccine in school and gyno exams start at 25 and are free too :D

Answer 15

I think if you can't afford BC don't have sex