Insurance is not about morality. The fine was imposed because if everybody bought insurance, the costs would go down for everyone. When you don't participate, it costs the rest of us. This is because the larger the insurable pool, the farther out the costs can be spread and thus each individual would pay less.
As for things like maternity care, you don't need it but maybe half the insurable pool does need it at some time -- and besides, maybe women shouldn't have to pay for insurance for your prostate problems, either. Oh, and you're an older male, and statistics show that older people need more medical care, yet younger people "subsidize" that care, too. Smokers? Insurance costs the same for them so that means the rest of us are subsidizing them and their higher risk of lung cancer, too. But that's okay, because insurance spreads these costs out across the entire insurable population. It's not morality. It's finances.
As for birth control, insurance pays that because it is SO MUCH cheaper than paying for maternity care and childbirth. Do you have any idea how many birth control pills you can buy for the cost of one childbirth? Ditto for vaccinations. Much cheaper than doctors to care for preventable illnesses. These two items alone save Blue Cross so much money that they've been paying for them LONG BEFORE there was *****care. Once again, it's not morality, it's finances.
Simplistic answers to complicated stuff are what's screwing up this country.
