Tawking: Healthcare in the Margins

I had so much fun tonight talking about something depressing, the gap between Medicaid and ACA exchange subsidies. It was energizing to know that people are interested in learning more.

Religiosity

The War on Women has many facets. Of them the vilification of contraception and the refusal of actual science are the most insidious. 

On this episode of Issues for Your Tissues Amanda Marcotte, contributor to Slate.com, RHRealityCheck.org and more joins me to talk about religiously affiliated employers forcing their beliefs on employees with attempts to strike contraception coverage from mandated health insurance plans. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires coverage for contraception without copay in prescription plans. Some employers are refusing to comply citing "religious freedom."

The real problem with this is that it is gender based discrimination against the female employees of said companies. Furthermore, the cost of the contraception is NOT paid by the employer. Health insurance programs are compensation for work that employees do. This is tantamount to your employer preventing you from spending your money on something you want. It's even worse than that really. It's equivalent to your employer paying you, you buying a product and then your employer coming in and tampering with that product to make it perform worse for you—to your own detriment.

It's willful ignorance to call IUDs abortifacients.

Brave New Year

For the first Issues for Your Tissues of 2014, Merritt Tierce Executive Director of the Texas Equal Access Fund (TEA Fund) joined me to discuss the increased demand for the direct assistance that the TEA Fund has experienced since HB2 became law last year. 

The TEA Fund is a member of the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), and provides direct financial assistance to women of little means seeking abortion care.