‘I Sure Don’t Want My Mammogram Benefits Taken Away’
Conservative Republican Senator Pat Roberts is taking fire and being accused of mocking breast cancer survivors, suggesting only women get breast cancer, and he shouldn’t have to pay for it. The Kansas lawmaker was asked by a reporter Thursday afternoon if he’s concerned about eliminating Obamacare’s Essential Health Benefits rule, which mandates that all health insurance plans include basic coverage for prescription drugs, hospital stays, mental health care and prenatal/maternity coverage.
“I sure don’t want my mammogram benefits taken away,” Sen. Roberts told Talking Points Memo’s Alice Ollstein. The Capitol Hill reporter in an article says Roberts “deadpanned” his remarks.
Senator Roberts apparently doesn’t even know that mammograms are not part of ObamaCare’s Essential Health Benefits rule. Nor does he know that in addition to more than 40,000 women, thousands of men die from breast cancer every year, and mammograms are one way of detecting breast cancer in both women and men.
Many on social media lashed out:
California Democrat Jackie Speierâ€:
Sen. Robertson ultimately apologized, in a way. That did not satisfy many:
Sen. Roberts stunningly offered a Democratic Senator “a Valium pill” during the confirmation hearing for Trump Treasury pick  Steven Mnuchin, also causing outrage. He also infamously blocked for months the nomination of Eric Fanning to become the first openly-gay Secretary of the Army.
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