ACA Repeal Will Impact Women Using Birth Control
Attempts by the Republican Party to repeal aspects of the Affordable Care Act will have a disproportionate financial impact on women using birth control.
The cheap and even free birth control that American women have enjoyed for the past five years could soon come to end, and both activists and health care companies are rushing to fill the potential void.
The Trump administration said Friday it will roll back the Obamacare requirement that employers offer coverage of a variety of birth control methods by allowing employers to get an “moral exemption” based on their religious beliefs. That could put a financial burden on millions of women and even result in a complete loss of access to birth control, advocates say.Women saved $1.4 billion on birth control pills alone in 2013 after the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit was passed, according to National Women’s Law Center, and overall spending on prescription drugs decreased due to the change. The rollback of the birth control mandate would reverse these social and financial benefits, Blanchard said.
And if companies and insurers stopped offering free birth control, these out-of-pocket expenses would be shouldered by millions of women.
“Getting a prescription for birth control can be difficult — women have to be able to get to a doctor and pay for an appointment,” Kelly Blanchard president of Ibis Reproductive Health, a women’s health care advocacy group said. “All of these can become delays or complete barriers to accessing contraception.”
Through the birth control mandate, health plans were required to provide all kinds of contraceptives, including hormonal birth control, intrauterine devices, sterilization procedures, and emergency contraception free of cost. With the Trump administration repealing the rule, any health insurer could refuse to cover contraception for religious or moral reasons.
Oral contraceptives are available over the counter in California, Oregon, and Washington and expanding access nationwide has come up a number of times in recent years, notably in the 2014 elections. Many advocates have pushed for contraceptives to be available both over the counter and covered by health insurance. The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of emergency contraception like Plan B for over-the-counter sales in 2013, but oral contraceptives for daily use still require a prescription from a doctor in 47 states.
