I'm on the job hunt, too, Linds. It's frustrating to have to present yourself as a set of salable skills over and over and over again.
And because I'm currently unemployed and rather low on funds, I was finding it difficult to shell out $60 a month at the pharmaceutical counter for oral contraceptives. So I'd heard that Planned Parenthood had payment plans or low-cost options for people in my situation, so I made an appointment and went in this morning. My hopes were not high: at our local grocery store, condoms are literally in a locked cabinet, for no obvious reason but to thicken the cloud of fear and shame that surrounds public knowledge of sexual activity. It seemed to me that, despite the television and movie industries' increasing comfort with sexual characters, we really have not come too far from our Puritan roots.
And certainly, the forms I filled out in the sterile waiting room were all about being "discreet." There was almost a full page of questions like, "If we leave a message at the number you've listed, can we say that Planned Parenthood called? If not, can we say that your doctor called? If not, is there a code word we can use to let you know that we need to get in contact with you? List code word here: ___________."
But it was clear that none of that shaming and discretion was coming from their end of the business. Inside the Education Room, where a nurse in scrubs took my blood pressure and talked to me about the birth control pills, sex was just another health issue. A flyer on the side of the file cabinet read, "Did you remember to get condoms? A lubricant? A chlamydia test?," complete with little pictures of each (chlamydia was represented by a nuzzling couple... go figure).
So I peed in a cup and the nurse came back with a little white bag filled with a year's worth of oral contraceptives, a dozen condoms, a bottle of lubricant, and a morning after pill package, just in case--all at no cost to me. I'm really touched. And grateful.
Shame and Puritanism aside, though, isn't this the most sensible of options? Why don't most private insurance companies here cover contraceptive measures? It's a lot cheaper for them than paying for a baby, and even couples who carefully use the "rhythm" method have about a 25% failure rate over a year of use. Combination estrogen and progestin pills, for comparison, fall somewhere between 0.1% and 1% (depending on where you get your statistics). And basically, fewer unwanted babies is good times for everyone: it takes the pressure off the nursing and teaching shortages, it gives people more time to get more education, which boosts the economy, and it almost certainly will keep juvenile detention facilities emptier... So step up to the plate, heath care!
Author
Topic: Whatever, Let's Have A Goddamn Blog Thread, But Try And Keep It Reasonable (Read 765667 times)