Senator Jeanne Shaheen had the best explanation for why men should pay for maternity care too
Some lawmakers in this country have recently been raising the question, “Why should men have to pay for maternity care?” And Senator Jeanne Shaheen has provided the best explanation for this. Senator Shaheen (who hails from New Hampshire) is a senior U.S. senator, and has spent her life advocating for women and girls both domestically and abroad.
The most recent person to pose this question was Iowa Representative Rod Blum. While expressing some of the problems he has with Obamacare now that he has voted for the GOP’s partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act, he said, “[We should] get rid of some of these crazy regulations that Obamacare puts in — such as a 62-year-old male having to have pregnancy insurance.” (Never mind the fact that women pay for things like prostate cancer and vasectomies in their insurance plans).
In an interview with Cosmopolitan.com, Senator Shaheen was asked why, exactly, this is faulty logic.
She responded that she likes to think of a colleague's response when he once overheard another (male) politician say he didn't need maternity services — “No, but I bet your mother did.
She then goes on to say,
“The premise of insurance is to spread the risk. It’s the premise of homeowner’s insurance, of car insurance, and of health insurance. It’s one reason why it’s important to have insurance when you’re healthy, so that when you get sick, you won’t go sign up just when you get sick, because that increases the cost for everyone. This is a similar issue.”
The simple fact is, requiring everyone (including men) to pay for things like maternal care benefits everyone — including families of which men are members. Why is this so hard to grasp?
