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In my continued attempt to understand American politics, I am now writing another question that will probably spiral out of control soon. I do apologize for any mistakes in my framing of this question.

In my previous question regarding contraception, one counter-argument popped up in the comments a few times regarding Viagra. The only counter-argument that was presented is one in which it's pointed out that Viagra is also used as a medication. However, so are hormonal contraceptives.

I found an article that shows that the Republicans did ban Medicaid and Medicare from paying for Viagra in 2005. However, more recent headlines show Republicans being for policies that allow companies to deny contraceptive coverage for their employees, while they do not seem to be against forcing those same companies to continue paying for Viagra. The Trump administration issued new rules to the Affordable Care Act to do just this.

Why this inconsistency?

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    The answer to your contraception question has the answer to this one too, I believe. "Those on the right, view at the very least contraceptives (and sometimes, other non-essential medicine) as NOT a fundamental human right which everyone must be given access to, but as an optional luxury. If you want it, you are free to pay for it. If you can't, go without." Viagra is "non-essential medicine" and this is largerly accepted, so no need for pushing against it as it is for contraception
    – Juliana Karasawa Souza
    Jul 2, 2021 at 13:26
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    @JulianaKarasawaSouza You misunderstand my question; They are NOT treating Viagra as non-essential medicine since they are not allowing employers deny Viagra coverage to their employees while they are treating contraceptives as non-essential medicine.
    – Avatrin
    Jul 2, 2021 at 13:28
  • true my bad. I don't have enough information to answer this, let's see what pops up
    – Juliana Karasawa Souza
    Jul 2, 2021 at 13:32
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    Please show links to prove Republicans are trying to prevent employers from denying Viagra coverage. I did a Google search and nothing came up. Otherwise this just sounds like an attempt to discredit a specific party.
    – RWW
    Jul 2, 2021 at 15:41
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    @RWW They are not trying to prevent it. It's more that while they did remove rules regarding contraceptives, they did not touch the ones regarding Viagra. This is being construed as them being for free Viagra and against contraceptive (thus the barrage of angry comments on my other question). So, sure, my title may be misleading, the text itself is not. I'll edit the title.
    – Avatrin
    Jul 2, 2021 at 16:36

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There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what is going on with the Affordable Care Act and how Republicans are responding to it. For contraceptives, Republicans are NOT trying to stop insurance companies from providing contraception. The issue is that they feel companies that provide insurance for their workers should not be forced to pay for non-essential procedures or medicine that conflicts with their religious beliefs. The law does not require anybody to provide Viagra. It just happens that most of them do. No one is forcing anyone to pay for Viagra so the Republicans have no reason to try to stop it.

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