Why is insurance coverage for contraception important to women's health?
Laws promoting insurance coverage for contraception are crucial to protecting and promoting women's reproductive health. By guaranteeing that insurers cover prescription contraception to the same extent as other medications, contraceptive-equity laws help ensure women's access to birth control and ultimately help prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion.
Current State Laws
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 Federal Laws
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.
2012 Federal Action
As part of the ACA, the Obama administration adopted a policy that all newly issued health plans must cover the full range of FDA-approved methods of contraception. The policy explicitly exempts religious houses of worship. Moreover, the policy allows religiously affiliated employers that presently refuse to offer their employees contraceptive coverage a one-year grace period to come into compliance. These organizations will be allowed to opt out of the policy permanently if they oppose it – but in those cases, insurance companies will be responsible for covering birth control directly for the consumer.
In response to the birth-control policy, anti-choice members of Congress introduced a flurry of bills in opposition. Additionally, anti-choice committee chairs held numerous hearings to counter the policy. While the anti-contraception reaction in Congress resulted in only one floor vote – in the Senate – several lawsuits challenging the policy continue to move through the courts, threatening to restrict this new benefit.
2012 Notable Developments
Unsurprisingly, many legislators across the states mimicked the federal campaign opposing the new contraceptive-coverage requirement. Several legislatures attempted to add a refusal to their state contraceptive-equity law or broaden an existing refusal. One state, Arizona, was successful in significantly broadening the list of employers that can deny the benefit to their employees.
View a map of all states with Contraceptive Equity.