We need a checkmate move on this HL nonsense - I propose Medicare Part W

Medicare Part W,

Open to any and all citizens, of any age, any gender, who need any type of hormone treatment prescriptions, for any reason. Free birth control, free hormone replacement therapy, free hormone transition therapy.

Any reason to expand Medicare to include other age groups, would be a win/win toward universal healthcare or single payer.

Then we'd see the fundies squawking about this too, which would finally prove that it's not about their having to pay a teency portion of the employee's premium, it's not about their religious freedom, it's not even about abortion -- it's about their PUSHING their repressive religious views about sexuality and their oppressive gender roles onto us.

(yes, yes, Big Pharma would likely squawk as well).


Same expected result goes for making the pill available over-the-counter. (I happen to believe it's safe, or at least safe enough. It's at least as safe as all those energy drinks, and cold medicines that everyone buys, and those are available over the counter. The pill is OTC in many countries.) All the sudden, the fundies would care SO much about every woman's health and would need to be protected from this heart-attack inducing medicine!

BECAUSE NOTHING EMPOWERED WOMEN SO MUCH IN THE LAST CENTURY AS BEING FREE FROM CHILDBEARING AND BEING FREED FROM DEBILITATING PAIN FROM CERTAIN MEDICAL CONDITIONS.

But yes, I know, no one would propose it, and no one would have an appropriations slots for it. But what if, just what if, we had some really brave and out of the box thinking going on right now. So I think I'm entitled to daydream big for awhile. We have no idea what this slippery slope is about to do to reproductive rights.

This is a case where unless the ACLU, the AMA, Big Pharma, universities, the DNC, the grassroots, and a few other groups form a highly vocal alliance - the opposition are going to somehow, some day, reverse Griswold.

And that's not hyperbole. That's their endgame.