Biden Administration Pressured to Make Insurers Cover Birth Control
The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury recently released a fact sheet to respond to a number of complaints and reports that participants, beneficiaries and enrollees are being denied contraceptive coverage.
According to the fact sheet, “The departments are actively investigating these complaints and reports and may take enforcement or other corrective actions.”
Currently, under the Affordable Care Act, contraceptive coverage is required of most private health insurance plans without any cost-sharing for the patient.
These rules were further clarified in HHS guidance from 2015, where it states that at least one form of 18 FDA-approved methods of birth control must be covered without cost-sharing.
Prior to the release of the updated fact sheet, a letter was written to HHS, DOL and the Treasury Department by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., with a request to end the barriers patients face getting birth control covered by insurance without cost-sharing.
“We have heard alarming reports that insurers are flouting the ACA’s contraceptive coverage protections, threatening women’s health and economic security. … Your robust enforcement of the ACA’s contraceptive coverage requirement is vital to the women who rely on its protection,” the senators’ letter states.
“We therefore ask that you issue additional, comprehensive guidance regarding insurers’ responsibilities for contraceptive coverage and that you take swift enforcement action against insurers who fail to comply with those responsibilities. Your robust enforcement of the ACA’s contraceptive coverage requirement is vital to the women who rely on its protection,” write the senators.
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