Ha ha! That's rich. There was no covering-up that discomfort.
I recommend looking at this related clip:
RedLasso - John McCain asked about Viagra (he gets flustered)
It's the uhhhh-ummmm-pshhhhh-whew [0:35] plus a surrogate's support points.
"Well, I don't have a monitor... and I could not hear..." [1:09].
I thought it was hilarious that this same question was brought up by his
own economic advisor [1:25], and yet McCain claims that he doesn't have enough information to make a response. You'd think he and Fiorina would swap notes.
First, whether an individual "owns" his or her own health coverage doesn't mandate that said health insurance provider will cover birth control or not [1:58]. If anything, maybe a bureaucrat can kick back some sort of support tax break or levy a cost if an insurance provider offers something that another one does not. Even the surrogate admitted that Congress has the power to push for certain procedures to get covered via committee establishments [1:45]. Individuals just don't have that power; or, rather, they don't have enough force behind them to compel an insurance company to change its policy of coverage.
Anything other than flat out abstinence merits a cost, and appropriate medications, vaccinations, and procedures deemed useful to promote women's health still incur a cost, whether we're talking prophylatics, routine screening and testing, vaccinations, and so on. I'm a smart guy, and I can tell you that it's pretty hellish to open up even a summary of benefits provided by insurance to determine just how much you'll pay it. It's all very confounding, and I can't imagine that the premiums somehow pass on that much of a credit -- it's just an ease of payment burden -- to the individual. In any case, unless you're prepared to do some manhunting, the McCain position doesn't leave you with much power to effect policy selections that fit your needs.
At my most cynical, I would say that all insurance companies have to do under a McCain administration is simply narrowband their products. If they all implicit to argue nickel and dime over a very finite range of products and services, no one will find what they need. They're just pulling the supply plug.
Bad, bad segue into economic issues [3:10]. Don't get me wrong. Retirement is good to discuss, but it just seemed thrown in there.
Could've spared three and a half minutes to admit that, no, this is something the McCain camp needs to think about. A half-assed distraction argument doesn't cut it.
. Most insurance companies do cover birth control voluntarily but it isn't mandatory.
