Contraceptive Equity

28 states have laws or regulations ensuring equity in private insurance coverage for prescription contraception: AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, RI, VT, WA, WV, WI.

Current law guarantees that Federal Employee Health Benefits program covers prescription contraception to the same extent as other prescription medications.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), newly issued insurance plans must cover women’s family-planning care, including all Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved contraceptive methods, without copayments or deductibles. This historic policy is the greatest improvement to women’s access to family-planning care in a generation and a giant step toward universal contraceptive coverage.

As part of its implementation of the ACA, which requires health plans to cover – at no cost –certain preventive-health services that are specific to women, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appointed an Institute of Medicine panel to recommend which services should be defined as preventive care under the law. The panel recommended that family-planning services, including the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive methods, be considered preventive care for women; in August, HHS adopted this recommendation in full. Now, plans issued on or after August 1, 2012 must include no-cost contraceptive coverage. The administration has proposed an opt-out for certain employers; it had not yet issued a final policy as of this publication’s printing.