So it came to my attention that penile implants or a metal rod to make the penis hard is something that 1) happens and 2) is covered by health care- specifically government-sponsored Medicare. See the story that initially sparked that revelation from Addicting Info as apparently this “surgery” was up for review in March of this year (2012) and was recently re-affirmed. The support for penile implant was hardened (couldn’t resist). You can download the PDF here for more information from Medicare’s handbook of approved procedures. Here’s the line itself:
From Addicting Info:
“a man feels the need to firm up his penis with rods and cylinders so that he can enjoy sex, that’s his choice. It IS covered by insurance. Insurance coverage does not use tax dollars to fund procedures. You must ask yourself why the GOP cares so much about contraception when they don’t have to pay for it? The individual pays into to their own benefits but somehow the GOP has convinced its own that by having birth control covered, taxpayers are footing the bill. “I just don’t want to have to pay for YOUR choice,” is their repeated lament.
On the other hand, Medicare is funded by you, the taxpayer. You are funding these procedures so that elderly men who are getting implants can enjoy intercourse! Where’s the outrage? Why aren’t women demanding that if a man on Medicare wants a penile implant, he should have to pay for it himself? Why aren’t women demanding that Medicare cover breast implants?
Sad but true. With a little further researching, it is quite evident that penile implants are not only totally non-essential, they are completely biased in the treatment of men’s sexuality over women’s sexuality. Am I really supposed to believe that every man should have a boner?
It’s not as though these men actually need a boner, it’s just that it’s a side-effect of poor lifestyle (age, diet, mental health) or another medical condition like spina bifida that certainly trumps the necessity on many levels of being able to get-it-up. This charitable gesture of correcting a medically, physically non-essential condition of impotence (that responds poorly to other non-surgical treatments) is government sponsored and approved by many other insurance companies but women’s access to birth control even for medically necessary reasons (and not even fighting the battle that avoiding pregnancy is necessary) isn’t covered by government healthcare (i.e. medicare)? Ridiculous. Women have to fight to even get privatized health insurance because many “conditions” like pregnancy are considered “pre-existing” and put a woman in a category of patient known as “high-risk.”
Yet a man who has a penis that won’t get hard is not considered high risk or a client with a pre-existing condition.
I don’t understand how a surgery to make you feel better about yourself can ever be deemed medically necessary. You will not convince me that the ability to make your dick from flaccid to erect is something that is life-threatening when compromised. Unless a man’s sperm sack or brain or body organ or whatever will explode without ejaculation, I honestly can’t imagine why implanting a rod to make the muscle do something is necessary. EVER.
However birth control to help control ovarian cysts, endometriosis, and other female reproduction gone awry can actually help save a woman’s life and it’s as simple as a pill. Breast implants aren’t part of government medical coverage though one might argue that after having a mastectomy due to cancer would justify such an “elective” surgery.
It’s downright repulsive the level of disregard for female reproduction and anatomy that this country has. Women should be sick of the slut-shaming, patriarchal nonsense that is pervasive throughout this system. It’s high time that women were treated with respect and weren’t completely bullied, abused, and otherwise tortured for desiring access to basic health care and life-saving protocols.
If a man deserves a boner, women deserve birth control.
Then again, women might use that birth control to not get illegitimately pregnant from the now-functional rapist with a penile implant. Couldn’t have that, now could we?
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