Birth Control Debate: Most Americans Support Federal Requirement To Cover Cost Of Contraception, Poll Finds

The New York Times:

Over all, 63 percent of Americans said they supported the new federal requirement that private health insurance plans cover the cost of birth control, according to the survey of 1,519 Americans, conducted from Feb. 13 to Feb. 19 for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

Comments

[Steve LeRoy Moore]

02:11 PM on 03/02/2012

It's a medical procedure and should be covered, I am still trying to understand how the eyes and mouth (teeth) are separated from the rest of body and not covered under most health care plans.

[Cacey]

11:26 AM on 03/02/2012

Yet another area in which a large majority of Americans back the President and oppose the Republicans. How's that "Anybody But Obama" mantra going for you, Baggers?

[Plastic7]

11:07 AM on 03/02/2012

I am a small business owner and a vegan. If the Blunt-Rubio amendment would be law I would refuse all of my employees who eat meat or dairy coverage for heart attacks.
I would also like the GOP to explain to me how they will police this, what it will cost to police this, where I would get the time to deal with this BS and how much paperwork it will create.
WTF .... insanity does not start to describe this. At least this poll gives me some hope that there are reasonable modern thinking people in the US.

[Ruben Santiago]

10:07 AM on 03/02/2012

First problem... Actually believing that the New York Times is unbiased.

[Theory7]

11:11 AM on 03/02/2012

I realize conservatives only read one paper, one network to get their propaga...err..news. But it doesnt matter what you think, every poll says the same thing.

[Ruben Santiago]

12:10 PM on 03/02/2012

Uh...no.

[Gynn]

01:26 PM on 03/02/2012

When someone disagrees with information presented, it is usually better to provide a sited source with a counter example, rather than just calling someone a liar.

[Ruben Santiago]

02:33 PM on 03/02/2012

I never said that they were lying. I said that they were biased.

[TurgidCaterwauling]

09:32 AM on 03/02/2012

The issue is a smokescreen reframed as a religious argument in order to attract more outraged Republicans into voting against Obama. This will become the new Republican tactic: connect everything you oppose about Obama as a religious argument.

[AlonzoQuijana]

09:28 AM on 03/02/2012

No employer, or individual for that matter, should be forced by government to buy a product he or she does not want. In this case it is health insurance that pays for abortifacients and birth control, a requirement from faceless, remote, unelected bureaucrats at HHS "interpreting" the 4,000-page PPACA bill. That's the simpler, broader issue.

[OHteach]

10:44 AM on 03/02/2012

My insurance plan offers hundreds of drugs that I will never want or need, for example ED drugs. Personally, I don't think that ED drugs should be offered on my plan, but I accept that they are. If you don't want it don't take it. No one is forcing you. As for insurance companies they like birth control as it lowers their costs.

[Cacey]

11:27 AM on 03/02/2012

Your students are fortunate to have such a wise and objective teacher. F&F

[Theory7]

11:12 AM on 03/02/2012

Except...they are not forced to do anything.

[kent4620]

09:28 AM on 03/02/2012

not updated for 2 hours.........HP on vavation????

[popman]

09:27 AM on 03/02/2012

Dems seem to get all huffy and puffy when they claim repub want to moniter people's private behavior in bedrooms, but want to force people to pay for birth control when the same people are in their bedrooms...

Can't have it both ways....

How about the government stay out all together and if someone wants birth control....it's cheap and avaiable or even how about not having sex if you cannot for some unknown reason can't afford .50 cents for a condom and not make me pay for it...

[Gynn]

01:22 PM on 03/02/2012

Two seperate issues. A Prohibition is quite different for an allowance. If you are legal prohibited from doing something in the bedroom AKA No Hanky Panky, that is an intrusion into private lives. On the other hand saying that others can't deny you the right to Hanky Panky, regardless of their beliefs is not a prohibition.

Rephrased, You are only given control over yourself, you are not legally permited to make life altering decisions for others. Should My boss be allowed to decide for me where I am permited to live, or who I am allowed to marry, or how many children I have. No. So then why should my employer be allowed to dictate what medicines I have access to?

[popman]

01:47 PM on 03/02/2012

Good point and I see the difference.....but if your employer is paying part of your medial premium ,...which most do at some percentage, they certainly can and do dictate what they will or will not pay for....as part of the negotiations with the insurance carrier

Certainly. I should not have to pay for your birth control though a federally mandated program ....I don't see birth control as a "medical issue" If's a life style issue..Getting pregnant isn't a disease.

If you want birth control certainly it is affordable to almost everyone and if you cannot afford even a condom ....here's a concept....don't have sex....

[Montana 123]

05:03 AM on 03/03/2012

I don't use bc for bc, Einstein.

[AlonzoQuijana]

09:26 AM on 03/02/2012

I love articles that start with "Most Americans." Think of all the blanks you can fill in:

--Believe in Angels
--Can't name a Supreme Court Justice
--Think space aliens have visited earth

Sorry, but on constitutional issues, the founders knew minority opinion would have to be protected from the mob.

[Theory7]

11:15 AM on 03/02/2012

Well when its based on actual polling and its 63% .....that is most people.

[biabouman41]

04:38 PM on 03/02/2012

I know you would love it if that big 63% fell on your side of the debate. Join us, they will.

[Littlewords]

09:25 AM on 03/02/2012

Naturally. The only reason to perceive the contrary is the over the top coverage of GOP candidates making this a big issue as the media covers them adnauseam pitching to their extremist base during their GOP campaign of otherwise Repub apathy and indifference.

If this was not going on, we see a more accurate reflection of American sentiments....which this poll validates....most support birth control as part of health care coverage as has always been the standard offering.

[3RawBob]

09:24 AM on 03/02/2012

The Catholic Bishops and their minions seem fixated on women’s birth control. Why not erectile dysfunction pills? Women’s birth control pills are simply estrogen and/or progestin, and are often used for reasons other than birth control. ED pills can be used to help a man procreate, but nobody believes that is their main use and the Bishops ought to be as vocal as they are about birth control.

What about the silence of Bishops on vasectomies? There is no misunderstanding its purpose. Hello, Bishops. Cat got your tongue?

[Knightro829]

09:21 AM on 03/02/2012

But Americans would never vote against their own interest. Nosiree...

[slack027]

09:21 AM on 03/02/2012

Yeah but what the poll does say is that the majoirty of Americans oppose the goverment forcing religious institutions to pay for BC pills. polls are easy to play with, depending what you ask and how you ask it,

[Gynn]

01:24 PM on 03/02/2012

And yet Religious Institutions are EXEMPT from said mandate. What they can't do is categorically ban their employees from access.

[kent4620]

09:18 AM on 03/02/2012

Most american's support the 1st admendment..........STANDOFF

[goatini]

08:15 PM on 03/02/2012

This is not about the First Amendment, regardless of whatever nonsense that the USCCB screeches.

[OMinOC]

09:16 AM on 03/02/2012

An the Americans that don't support it don't have to take the free birth control. In Christianity there is still the concept of free will.