WE TALKED A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LIVIN' LA VIAGRA LOCA here on Monday, and I'm bringing it up again. Ever since that little blue pill hit the market in 1998, the dysfunctional boys on the bolus have been covered by their health insurance. That came compliment of their empathetic peers in industry who wouldn't want to miss out on being rock hard in their waning years. Because if you've still got the juice to get a date, god forbid you lose out on the right to a hard-on.

Conversely, half of all American women have continued to be forced to pay out-of-pocket for contraceptives. The double standard has galled women's rights groups and anybody who valued gender equality in health care. "I would say it's an idea whose time has come -- it's past time," former Planned Parenthood executive director Gloria Feldt told ABC 10 years ago. "When it comes to health insurance, men have been getting a better deal." That is -- until today, when President Obama's Affordable Care Act begins requiring insurance companies to expand women's healthcare without a required co-pay. As reported by CBS, the new law provides:

    Annual "well woman visits" for recommended preventive services;
    Contraception and contraceptive counseling without a co-pay.
    Gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant, and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes.
    HPV DNA testing every three years for women who are 30 or older, regardless of Pap smear results, to reduce the prevalence of cervical cancer.
    Annual sexually transmitted infections (STI), HIV screening and counseling for sexually-active women.
    Breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling for pregnant and postpartum women

The new law requires religious organizations' insurers to provide free contraceptive to employees of those institutions. Religious groups vow to fight the requirement. The new law "marks the beginning of the end of religious freedom in our nation," Christen Varley, executive director of Conscience Cause, told CBS.

Of course, for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction. And we say: free at last, free at last. Thank god these services are free at last.