For those that are so militantly opposed to insurance coverage for birth control, why are you okay with insurance coverage for penile implants? Birth control actually has some medical uses beyond contraception (it's very useful for the treatment of endometriosis, for example), while penile implants don't have a medical use beyond defining the ability to have sex as a medical use.
Stop interjecting the phony issue of the use of bcp to treat legitimate medical problems -because that is covered by insurance. We are talking about bcp as a contraceptive.
Secondly -you have a serious sexual hang-up as evidence by your suggestion you find penile implants to be the equivalent as bcp! Maybe you really don't get this but the ability to have sexual intercourse -for men and women alike -as actually a normal body function and it is one a lot of people value quite highly for themselves. YOUR personal hang-up doesn't get to substitute for the value an individual places on it for him/herself. Clearly you are an agist and believe older people who suffer the loss of normal body function due to age, illness or injury -should have to suffer the loss of that body function for the rest of their lives. And all because YOU have a hang-up about it!
A penile implant to restore lost body function is no different than replacing a damaged knee with an artificial joint so the individual can be restored to near normal mobility -or getting an intraocular implant and cataract surgery to restore near normal vision again! The loss of mobility due to bad joints and the loss of vision due to the development of cataracts are also strongly correlated to the aging process. Aging itself is a normal process -the damage it does to the body is a natural occurrence-but not normal any more than having a stroke is "normal"! Measles are natural too -should we stop vaccines for that too and tell kids and pregnant women they are on their own for that too?
By picking out penile implants instead of artificial knees is you revealing just how deep your sexual hang-up really is! That is nothing but your own ARROGANT demand we start distinguishing between the types of body functions medical treatment will be allowed to restore to near normal again because you think YOUR personal value judgment about the value of a particular body function must replace that of the individual! And you are in reality claiming a right to tell some people they will never be allowed to have a normal or near normal sex life again! Who the hell do you think you are?
What, you think because a woman is beyond her childbearing years her partner must forfeit his own sex life (and to hell with the fact it also forces her to forfeit her own along with his)? Suddenly liberals are PURISTS and think sex is all about producing CHILDREN now and anyone too old to bear or want to raise children you get to tell may never have a normal sex life for the rest of their lives? Who said your sexual and agist hang-ups will replace the value an individual places on his/her own sex life and whether they can receive medical treatment to try and restore it to as near normal as possible??
I hate to break the news to you -but there are a lot of old people who really value their sex lives. My 86 yr. father-in-law was still having sex to the day he died -and he was having it with his 80 year old girlfriend and next door neighbor and it was no one's business but their own. He was the kind of man who strongly valued it and if impaired due to illness, medication etc. I promise, he would have sought medical treatment for it. Whether YOU have a hang-up about that or not, whether the idea makes you go "eww" or not.
The purpose of medical treatment is to RESTORE an individual to as near normal function as possible and when it isn't possible, give that individual the highest quality of life in light of irreparable damage.
ABSOLUTELY health insurance should cover penile implants -the people who need them are suffering from an IMPAIRMENT of a previously normal body function and it is one they have every right to try and get restored to as near normal! Medical treatment is capable of addressing that impairment and restoring impaired body functions is the entire point of medical care! It is passing judgment that isn't YOURS to make when insisting the individual cannot be allowed to determine the value of a particular body function because YOU have a sexual and agist hang-up! The value of that body function is up to the individual to make -NEVER yours! Some people choose not to have knee replacements, some choose not to have cataract surgery, some choose not to have penile implant. But for those who WANT these body functions in better shape, it is THEIR call to make -not yours. And NO birth control pills are NOT the equivalent on any level when used as a contraceptive! The former is used to restore near normal function. The second is to relieve a woman's concern that if she has sex her NORMAL body function will result in pregnancy. She isn't suffering from any IMPAIRMENT.