EDITOR
Erin Gibson
OPINION
EDITOR
Cliff Hicks
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Nancy Christensen
Brad Davis
Sam McKewon
Jeff Randall
Bret Schulte
Our
VIEW
Equal
protection
Insurance should
cover contraceptives
It was hard to escape last year’s media
frenzy surrounding the wonder drug
Viagra. The drug essentially cures male
impotence, renewing the sex lives of
thousands of red-blooded American
males.
And insurance companies were quick
to offer financial assistance to Viagra
users. Almost half of the men who use the
drug, which costs about $10 per pill and
has been linked to heart attacks, are reim
bursed by their insurance companies.
I By contrast, most women who use pre
scription contraceptives, which cost
between $20 and $30 per month, get no
assistance because insurance companies
and employers who pay premiums do not
feel birth control is a medical necessity
for women, and they don’t want to push
up premium prices for their other cus
tomers.
So, in other words, insurance compa
nies have no problem paying for a pill that
enables men to have sex; however,
enabling women to have sex isn’t consid
ered a priority.
Talk about your double standards.
Or better yet, talk to your state sena
tors about them.
A hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
today in the Banking, Commerce and
Insurance Committee in the Legislature to
discuss LB845.
The bill would force insurance compa
nies to cover prescription contraceptives
exactly the same way they cover other pre
scriptions. IUDs, diaphragms and injec
tions would be included in this coverage.
Insurance companies may complain
that the Legislature has no right to pass
laws requiring them to offer certain bene
fits because the costs for these benefits
must be paid by raising premiums for all
insurance customers.
And they say they do not factor in the
costs of pregnancy and childbirth when
considering whether or not to cover con
traceptives.
However, included in this group will
be the many women who, in addition to
paying insurance premiums for other
health care needs, must also find a way to
pay for their birth control.
Insurance companies can say the
Legislature has no right telling them what
to cover, but they haven’t exactly rushed
to women’s aid over the years.
Most insurance companies would not
pay for prenatal care until a federal law
was passed in the 1970s, and they had no
other choice. Mammograms did not have
to be covered in Nebraska until a state law
was passed.
The insurance companies can say they
are only worried about the money, but
their discriminatory policies suggest
something more.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its
employees, its student body or the
University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of its author.
The Board of Regents serves as publisher
of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The
UNL Publications Board, established by
the regents, supervises the production
of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student employees.
letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor and guest columns,
but does not guarantee their publication.
The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
edit or reject any material submitted.
Submitted material becomes property of
the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be
returned. Anonymous submissions will
not be published. Those who submit
letters must identify themselves by name,
year in school, major and/or group
affiliation, if any.
Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln,
NE. 68588-0448. E-mail:
letters@untinfo.unl.edu.
k u » * i .i « t
I Duffes
VIEW
[ iRa^swert)
1 rTT^^4-m®TOEt«HE>O^W»©T0
TO( FEPERtt.TWS-’nESWElWWrOf TltVT
TWESTOflawntFCRMS.
Feminists, schmeminists
How often do students of this cam
pus get the opportunity to hear a
nationally known conservative woman
speaker?
Never.
Most of the time, when women do j
lecture on this campus, they do so
at the invitation and administrative /ll
support of some leftist-leaning •4§|r
organization (i.e. the Women’s i .
Center), and they tend to be rad
ically liberal, pro-abortion, pro-les
bian, anti-male and anti-family - j
dare we say, feminazis. J
This Wednesday, Feb.
24, which coincidentally hap
pens to mark the 20th
anniversary of
Women’s Week, the
College
Republicans
wish to offer
students an
alternative to
these radical
womynists by
co-sponsor
ing the visit of
Ms. Angela
“Bay”
Buchanan.
Ms.Buchanan,
whose politi
cal creden
t i a 1 s
include serving as U.S.
Treasurer during the Reagan adminis
tration, managing both of her brother
Pat Buchanan’s presidential cam
paigns, and co-hosting CNBC’s
“Equal Time,” will lecture on the
“Failures of Feminism.”
So if you’ve grown tired of the
washed-up rhetoric of the radical fem
inist types the women’s center plans to
offer during the week, we suggest you
come and see Ms. Buchanan
Wednesday night at 8 in the Nebraska
Union. Come and listen to a successful
and powerful woman expose the
numerous shortcomings and failures
of modem feminism.
It’s about time we get a little diver
sity on this campus.
Rick Parsons
junior
accounting
College Republicans chairman
Josh Moenning
junior
advertising and political science
CoIlegeR^puMicaps secretary
X » » 1 * * < l . . » I t #
DN
LETTERS
Keep it under wraps
The column “A+
in anatomy,” by Mark
^Baldridge that
tappeared in the
rFeb. 18 Daily
Nebraskan
makes me feel
''j sick. I don’t know what
W Mr. Baldridge is trying
; "o say, except to
describe that
thing
down
there.
I am
an interna
Melanie Falk^DN^
tional stu
dent from China. My
English level of writing is not compa
rable to that of that columnist, espe
cially when talking about such a topic
as that in his article. I am not poor at
English; I got 690 on the verbalpart of
the GRE. Still I can’t figure out what
he is trying to let us know. More than
this, his language makes me sick. I
don’t know whether such a depiction
of his penis is appropriate, according
to your rules of editing.
It’s rare in my country that such
writing can ever appear in the media,
for it’s explicitly offensive to a majori
ty of readers. Perhaps there are differ
ent criteria here toward this; I don’t
know.
I don’t know what others will feel
upon reading it, but I should let you
know that my feeling is very, very bad.
I think all that I can do is to bypass
everything this Mark Baldridge writes
in die Daily Nebraskan.
Baowei Wei
graduate student
engineering mechanics
I. >1114. 4 J i 4« 1 I J t i
Once, twice, three times a
writer...
I have three takes:
First, I see there is a women’s con
ference next week. I was just wonder
ing - when is the men’s conference? Is
it this June or next June?
Second, I see there was one small
item left out of almost everyone’s cov
erage of the Congressional Ag
Committee hearing in Grand Island on
Monday. All the committee members
there were Republicans. This is impor
tant, because all the Democrats were
invited, too, but they knew what was
coming - farmers sick and tired of bad
policies. With THEIR president crow
\ ing about how great the economy is,
how could any Democrat face the
' reality that the economy is NOT
; in such great shape because of the
/ enormous impact agriculture has
on it? Chickens. Politics. One mes
sage is clear; Democrats apparently
do not care about farmers.
Third, I see Tom Casady, a fine
public servant deserving of much
praise, talking about unregistered
vehicles, and that’s great, we should all
be good people and pay our fees. But if
Nebraska didn’t have such high taxes
on everything and didn’t bleed its cit
izenry to death with overblown
registration fees, when compared
to other states, perhaps people
wouldn’t be shirking their
responsiDiiiues so mucn.
Property tax. Sales tax. Wheel
tax. Income tax. Nebraska wins the
prize.
Jason Fredregill
Film/video producer, director.
and writer
agricultural communications
Photo-rific!
I just wanted to extend kudos to the
Daily Nebraskan photography staff.
Almost every day I’m impressed by
the photos I see in your publication.
Some are truly memorable.
They say a good photo is worth a
thousand words. I couldn’t agree more.
Keep up the great work. You’re provid
ing a tremendous service to your read
ers.
Tom O’Connor
senior associate coordinator of
public affairs