Birth control mandate

On the very day members of Congress vowed they've started us down the road toward "lower government spending," the Obama administration unveiled a health care insurance edict mandating that women receive free birth control and other services.

This goes far beyond simply requiring insurers to include birth control coverage in all policies -- which by itself increases the cost of health care. No, the White House now wants to make it all "free."

Which is another word in Washington for "very expensive."

"Under new guidelines issued Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services, eight preventive health services will no longer require co-pays and deductibles," PBS reports. "The new rules will take effect for all new insurance plans starting Aug. 1, 2012, and will apply to much of the population by the start of 2013. ...

In addition to birth control, the new mandate requires insurers provide "free" breast pumps and domestic violence counseling.

Of course, safe birth control should be available to all women -- and it is. But what this mandate does -- like all other mandates -- is drive up costs for everybody under the belief that anyone who buys medical insurance should be made to fund the costs of birth control for those who wish to spend their money on other things.

"The health care reform law requires insurance providers to cover 100 percent of the costs for all preventive health care services HHS officials deem essential," PBS reports. "The eight new services join a growing list already embedded in the law, including colonoscopies, mammograms, pediatric services, and vaccinations."

Nothing is really "free," of course. The ObamaCare edicts simply mean that while even minimal co-pays -- retained primarily to discourage the insured from seeking treatments they don't really need -- will be waived, others paying in to the system will bear the cost of subsidizing these expenses.

The president based his 2010 campaign in part on efforts to control rising health care costs. While well-intentioned, this mandate -- like all the others -- only exacerbates the problem.