I wrote a while back about an incident in which McCain was unable to give his opinion on whether or not he approves of health insurance companies offering coverage for Viagra, while failing to cover birth control.
FactCheck.org looked into the issue, and it turns out that the claim that insurance companies do this is a bit spurious. According to them, 86% of health insurance companies do cover contraceptives. In that sense, the very question that was asked of McCain was somewhat misleading.
However, the strange part of this story is that the notion that health insurance companies engage in this practice was first introduced into the public eye by...Carly Fiorina, one of McCain's top advisors. As the LA Times reports , it was Fiorina who initially said:
"Let me give you a real, live example, which I've been hearing a lot about from women. There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won't cover birth control medication. Those women would like a choice."
Hmmm.
Note: This is a mistake made by one of McCain's surrogates, not McCain himself.