A reader took issue with last week’s cartoon about McCain’s awkward moment after being asked about insurance coverage for birth control:
I noticed the nice flag saying ‘Actual Response’, pity you couldn’t use the flag, ‘Actual Question’ since the reporter’s question for that response was, “It’s unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control. Do you have an opinion on that?”.
Check the link fron FactCheck.org, hardly a partisan group, to see that, “…86 percent of the plans that insurance companies typically wrote for employers covered the full range of approved reversible contraceptive methods (birth control pills, hormone injections, implants, IUDs and diaphragms), and only 2 percent covered no methods at all.”
If you have to mute, twist, or spin facts to try and make a point, the point is not worth making.
A few points in response: first, Drooly’s question posed to McCain is a paraphrase of the actual reporter’s questions, since I couldn’t fit her exact words into the comic. But I don’t think the meaning is changed by my phrasing.
Secondly, the reporter was referring to a statement made by McCain campaign surrogate Carly Fiorina, who said “There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth control medication. Those women would like a choice.” FactCheck.org doesn’t bother to mention this crucial tidbit until the very end.
Even if health care plans that cover Viagra but not the Pill are in the minority (apparently this was more widespread when Viagra first came onto the market), the fact that there are plans that don’t cover the Pill is hugely problematic. State-level mandates have improved coverage for birth control, yet John McCain has voted twice against mandates at the federal level.
The right answer to the reporter’s question would have been: “A plan covering Viagra but not the Pill would be absurd. We as a society should care about family planning, because it reduces the number of abortions and other problems that arise from unintended pregnancies. Duh!” But no, not only did he flub the question, but his campaign later issued the statement that he favored more market competition as the solution. Because, you know, the market has done such a fantastic job with health insurance so far!
FactCheck.org has a tendency to isolate literal facts to the exclusion of the broader context. In this case, we have a context where the Bush administration is trying to label the Pill and other forms of contraception as abortion. You can’t make this stuff up! The fact that McCain has an atrocious record on reproductive rights — and shows every intention of continuing to pander to the loons of the far right on these matters — is, in fact, a legitimate concern.
