Senate bill calls for coverage of contraceptives

Health insurers' inadequate coverage of prescription birth control threatens women's health, one physician testifies.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews staff. Sept. 24, 2001.

Washington -- Many women's lack of insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices hinders their access to a critical health care service and should be addressed through federal legislation, several witnesses testified before Congress on Sept. 10.

"Inadequate health insurance coverage of prescription birth control remains a glaring medical problem for American women," said Anita L. Nelson, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California in Los Angeles and medical director of the Women's Health Care Clinic at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.

Testifying on behalf of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Dr. Nelson urged Congress to adopt legislation that would require private health plans that cover prescription drugs and devices to also cover all FDA-approved prescription contraceptives.

ACOG has endorsed the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, which would require insurers to cover prescription contraceptives and outpatient contraceptive services, such as consultations, examinations and procedures related to contraceptive use.

The bill "would remedy a long-standing inequity in insurance coverage," Dr. Nelson told a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. While most health plans (about 90%) cover prescription drugs and devices, many do not cover prescription contraceptives, she said.

According to a 1994 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 97% of fee-for-service plans covered prescription drugs, but only 49% covered any prescription contraceptive method at all, and only 33% covered birth control pills. [...]