One morning last week, while driving to work, I heard a report on the news of a new study which concluded that “High-deductible health insurance plans favored by many employers often wind up being an unfair burden to women”. I was so shocked by some of the logic and reasoning I heard in the short radio report that I had to look for more information on the study.

I traced it to an AP article in the San Jose Mercury News covering a study done by Harvard Medical School researchers about the effects of different insurance policies on men versus women. Right off the bat I believe the study was biased. Why should it take a Harvard study to conclude that it costs more money to provide women’s health care than men’s? It seems so incredibly obvious to me. Think of how many more reasons a woman has to go to the doctor. Everything from pregnancy to extensive annual exams add up to significantly higher medical costs.

To be clear, I do not deny it requires a lot more money to provide health care for women versus men. I also do not deny that health care is a much larger burden for a single women versus a single man. The problem I have with the study is signified in this quote by the study’s lead author, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler (emphasis mine).

“High-deductible plans punish women for having breasts and uteruses and having babies.”

Read that quote a couple times and really thing about it. Here is the logic as I see it: because a women has to pay more in health costs than a man in order to receive more extensive care than a man she is somehow being punished. That is like saying that people who have poor vision are being punished by optometrists because they actually have to pay for eye exams and glasses while those who have good vision do not.

I believe one reason we see studies like this is a result of the extensive reach of the feminist movement. When was the last time you saw a study on the unfairness of life insurance policies towards men since they have to pay more for the exact same coverage when compared to woman? Are men being punished because they die younger than women? How unfair is that?

So what is unfair here? Is it that the doctors and hospitals actually want to get paid for what they do? Is it that insurance companies want to be reimbursed for money they pay out? Is it that the employers are looking for the lowest cost in health insurance in order to maximize profit in order to ensure its own existence which allows it to employ people in the first place? Is it that women actually have to pay for what they get?

I think an underlying root problem, which is rampant in the US, is on display here. Many Americans have developed a continually increasing sense of entitlement. According to the Declaration of Independence your entitlements begin and end with “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. There is no mention of health care, food, housing, transportation, or information. Furthermore, any of the three rights actually listed in the Declaration are contingent on you keeping your nose out of other people’s use of their three rights. Your right to life can absolutely be taken away in you infringe on someone else’s right to life.

To paraphrase something I once heard Dave Ramsey say: you only have a right to whatever to get up, go out, kill, and drag home yourself. Other than that, it is not yours and you have no right to it. I would take it a step further. You have no God given right to even take your next breath let alone be provided with health coverage you did not pay for. In the words of John Stossel: “Give me a break.”