‘Is that not correct?’: Male GOP lawmaker asks why men should pay for prenatal coverage
The law also required plans to cover pregnancy and childbirth. That’s where the fireworks started in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
“What mandate in the Obamacare bill does he take issue with?” Doyle asked Shimkus, using the formal parlance of congressional committees.
“What about men having to purchase prenatal care?” Shimkus said.
At that point, one could hear the room start to stir.
“I’m just . . . is that not correct?” Shimkus said. “And should they?”
.. “Do men not have to buy maternity coverage?” Ellmers said, referring to the health-care law’s essential health benefits. “To the best of your knowledge, has a man ever delivered a baby?”
Here’s how insurance expert and columnist Nancy Metcalf answered a similar question from a Consumer Reports reader that year:
Health insurance, like all insurance, works by pooling risks. The healthy subsidize the sick, who could be somebody else this year and you next year. Those risks include any kind of health care a person might need from birth to death — prenatal care through hospice. No individual is likely to need all of it, but we will all need some of it eventually.