Should birth control be free?

Making birth control free would be too costly

Question: Should birth control be free?
Position‹2 of 3›: No, birth control should not be free
Argument1 of 4›: Making birth control free would be too costly

Both for taxpayers and users, the cost would be too much.

The argument

Let's explore the idea that birth control becomes free under all forms of insurance. This is all fine and dandy, but who is paying for the cost of this? Who is covering the price that once was paid by many? The question is the substance of the objection: making something free at the point of use does not make it cost nothing, it only moves the payment somewhere less visible, and the argument insists on asking where. The answer, on this account, is those who do not have access to insurance that would cover birth control. By making birth control free under all insurances, the cost for those who don't have it would increase tenfold. The people left outside the arrangement are by definition the ones without insurance, which in general means those least able to buy it — so a policy presented as removing a barrier ends up raising one for the group already facing the highest. It may be good for many, but we are sacrificing the few. It's not ethical. There is also a chance that taxpayers would have to pay more in order to cover for this increase in cost. Many people would not be satisfied with that, since it converts a private expense into a public obligation for people who had no part in incurring it. Not only that, but taxpayers would be paying for EVERYONE to get free birth control, including access for the top 1%, who can afford the cost. That doesn't make sense. A universal benefit spends public money on those who would have bought the thing anyway, which is money not spent on the people who could not — so even judged by its own aim of widening access, the policy directs resources where they are least needed. Because making birth control free would be too costly and unfairly distributed, birth control should not be free.

Premises

[P1]If birth control were free under all insurance, the cost once paid by users would shift onto others — raising costs for the uninsured and likely for taxpayers. [P2] Taxpayers would then fund free birth control for everyone, including the wealthy who can already afford it, which is neither efficient nor fair. [C] Therefore, because making birth control free would be too costly and unfairly distributed, birth control should not be free.

Counter-arguments

This is a battle between the economic and the moral. We need to make birth control free for everybody, not just those covered by insurance. That way, no one is left out and the moral dilemma is not an issue. Birth control should be a right, not something that can be dismissed by those who don't want to pay a little more.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Birth control could be made free for everyone, without it being contingent on insurance.