<p>Slithey: I’m going to guess that the pharm’s request for the ‘Costco Card’ is an auto pilot response. If you’re a member, your Costco card is often your Amex card and thus the payment method of choice. I don’t think there is a sinister or coercive intent. I have found the Costco Pharmacists to be some of the most knowledgeable, accessible and informed I a have encountered. DH has several meds which I’ve been trying to get on the same schedule - insurance only pays every 27 days. The pharmacy will actually call and leave a message letting us know medication X is not available under insurance coverage for another Y days. Also, unlike Walgreens and CVS, Costco will automatically check if your insurance co-pay is higher than their cash and carry price. Our copay is $15.00 (only covered for generic) - many meds are actually less than this and Costco will automatically give me the lower rate. One time I asked my dentist for 4 Xanex as a relaxant for upcoming procedures. Our local Walgreens applied the full deductible price of $15.00. A call to Costco I discovered -to late - they would have charge a per pill price which was much less. </p>
<p>And FWIW…some Walgreens will give you a AAA auto club membership discount which in some cases of generic drugs is less than our $15.00 copay. Regretfully this whole thing is a game and it takes determination to figure out the rules. Hopefully this will change, but until then - knowledge is power.</p>
<p>Underage students who want to buy alcohol (as opposed to drinking alcohol that someone else purchased) have to</p>
<ol>
<li> Obtain a fake ID</li>
<li> Get off campus</li>
<li> Find a store/bar that will accept the fake ID</li>
<li> Get transportation to said store/bar
4a. Which means a car if a keg or larger quantities are being purchased</li>
<li> Persuade clerk/bartender/bounce to accept fake ID</li>
<li> PAY for the alcohol with cash (can’t use a credit card or check with fake ID)</li>
<li> Get transportation home, perhaps in intoxicated state</li>
<li> Sneak alcohol into dorm room</li>
</ol>
<p>Somehow these hurdles don’t stop many underage students from drinking.
The notion that college women – who are generally in the top percentile of intelligence – are foregoing birth control pills because they aren’t available on campus is absurd.</p>
<p>I still think the media is missing the BIG story - how, well prior to this, hundreds of Catholic institutions - colleges, universities, hospitals, health systems, charities, chaplaincies, and, yes, churches, have defied Pope, bishop, priests, and official pronouncements, to provide contraceptive coverage to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of students and employees - both Catholics and not - all across the country. And how Catholics - both church-going and not - readily availed themselves of this benefit. And, further, how tens of thousands of Catholic women, failing to use contraception effectively, defy Pope, bishops, priests, and official pronouncements each year and choose abortions far out of the proportion to their representation in the population.</p>
<p>This is the big story, and I think the media is basically afraid to cover it.</p>
<p>Exactly. And quite frankly, would you want to hire someone who could not figure out how to add an appointment into their schedule which may require forethought and working within the confines of a bus schedule? I can hear it now - hey Mr. Employer, what do you mean there is no cafeteria on site? How am I supposed to eat? Oh and by the way - when you Mr. employer figure out how to deliver the FREE lunch to my desk, make sure it is organic, gluten free and uses only hass avocado oil - non of this generic stuff for me!</p>
<p>You are right, mini. I would like to start one of those on-line petitions to tell the Catholic church that women aren’t going to take it anymore, but I am not ready to be excommunicated just yet. I was very happy that I skipped mass the day of the letter reading because I am afraid I would have had to walk out.</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t think it matters. Those Catholic institutions have proven that the Church hierarchy people, and their views or their “doctrine”, are pretty irrelevant, except in trying to instill a sense of guilt in the millions of American men and women who openly defy them.</p>
<p>The point is that women who are sufficiently mature to have decided to have sexual relations with men with whom they are not prepared to parent a child, should also be sufficiently mature to figure out how and where to get contraceptives if they attend a Catholic institution that does not provide them with instantly available free contraceptives. Having to plan ahead, make appointments, perhaps even (gasp) leave campus, and make room in the budget for contraceptive purchases does not seem that high a hurdle to me. If it is, then these women should give some serious thought about whether they are ready for sexual activity. </p>
<p>Especially when we remember that these are young, intelligent women who somehow managed to leap the hurdles necessary to be admitted to selective private schools in the first place.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church is like any other big business or municipality. There are laws on the books which are ignored for what ever reason - think Sanctuary Cities and pot smoking and jaywalking. Then along comes some external force which for whatever reason causes the organization to ‘go by the book’…</p>
<p>A very recent example is on in San Francisco. Turns out the city has had a law on the books for 40+ years that only the parking authority may charge for parking. So, if you - Joe citizen - rents your private garage to someone, or Joe Property Owner rents out a spare garage not used by a tenant - you owe the parking authority part of the funds. Now, no one - not even property management agencies - remembered this law. Yet, there was a big audit of anyone and everyone suspected of renting out a private parking space. Fines were assessed and notices with big red letters were sent. The city needs $$$$$$.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church was perfectly happy to let this issue hide quietly, sort of in a ‘work it out amongst yourselves’ fashion. The federal gov. healthcare mandate brought the issue to front page status. So, just as when a local jurisdiction is publicly confronted with the effects of it’s own non-enforcement (a jaywalker gets killed) - the Church decided to enforce ‘what is on the books’.</p>
<p>And, again, if this is such an insurmountable, unsolvable, impossible situation for a young person, then they are in no way ready to function in the real world. Would you employ someone who was unable to figure out this rather simple problem?</p>
<p>Don’t worry mini. The mainstream media is ALL OVER the story of “Catholic” institutions and individuals who bravely defy Church teachings on human sexuality so that they can conform to the world while still insisting that they are part of the Catholic Church. </p>
<p>And those who “skip” Mass have little to fear from starting silly online petitions demanding that the Church change its teachings to suit them. The real question is why anyone with such a poor grasp of Church teachings wants to be considered a Catholic at all.</p>
<p>Beats me. Obviously lots do. And tens of thousand of Church-going, mass-attending Catholics use birth control and are having abortions. They are probably the majority of the American church. </p>
<p>And, no, the mainstream media has not been all over it. I have yet to see an interview with the head of Catholics for Choice, or with any of the multiple Catholic board members of Planned Parenthood, or even with CEO of Providence Health Systems in my state, one of the largest employers in our state, that has been providing contraception coverage to its employees for a long time, or of the head of Catholic Charities in my state, or Catholic Social Services, that do the same. All church-going, mass-attending, confessing Catholics. That’s where the real story is.</p>
<p>This is not a theocracy. Nor is it the Vatican. Women should not have to have secondary health care providers because old men with white collars declare they should.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The Catholic Church is trying to get the federal government to do what is has spectacularly failed at. Again, that is not the job of the government outside of a theocracy.</p>
<p>Mini: Yes, many Catholics ignore the edicts on birth control. That’s not what’s at issue here. If anyone going to a Catholic institution was unaware of these restrictions then they they made a woefully uninformed choice. Complaining after the fact just makes one a whiner.</p>
<p>I just don’t see why this is such a huge problem. PPH will give you a 3 months supply of BC pills after the first visit. Then, after a follow-up visit in three months, if all is well, they will give you a 12 or 13 month supply. This requires 2 blinking visits to a clinic over a 16 month period and the ability to plan into the next week. I mean really, come one, if this is such a burden and strain then my guess is these individuals will need to move back to Mommy’s couch because they will not be able to deal with the daily annoyances and struggles which are in the real world.</p>
<p>Why should a Catholic institution have the right to impose their moral beliefs on me just because I choose to either work or go to school there? I’m not asking them to use birth control, I am just asking for the right to make that decision for myself.</p>
<p>claremarie–do you think that the Church will take a hard stand and not allow the faux-Catholics and their male coharts to be Catholic? Return their donations? That would show them. </p>
<p>It would seem to shrink the size of the US Catholic Church by 80+%. Perhaps that would trigger a sell off of much of the US Church property so they could use the money in places where there are real Catholic.</p>
<p>I’d love to get the estimated $100 billion in Catholic church real property in the US back on the tax rolls.</p>
<p>“Mini: Yes, many Catholics ignore the edicts on birth control. That’s not what’s at issue here.”</p>
<p>The issue is that the government has a legitimate, overriding interest in ensuring people - all people - have routine access to preventive health services, including contraception. To quote Justice Scalia:</p>
<p>"(Laws)are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. . . . Can a man excuse his practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself."</p>
<p>This is probably why the Catholic Church has not brought a case against the requirement in any of the 28 states which already has it, including those where churches themselves are required to provide coverage. They’d lose.</p>