The federal government just handed women an important health care victory by closing loopholes in health insurance coverage for birth control.
All types of health insurance are supposed to cover birth control 100 percent starting in 2012, thanks to Obamacare. But some health insurance companies were only paying for some types of birth control and not others. New guidance from the federal government delivered earlier this month closed that loophole. That means that health insurance companies have to cover one type of each of the 18 kinds of birth control approved by the FDA.
The new guidance also instructs health insurance companies to pay for the insertion and removal of IUDs and implants. Health insurance companies also have to completely cover visits to a health care provider for birth control, and counseling with a provider concerning birth control, according to the new federal guidelines.
In the sunny state of California, we have even more to celebrate. In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law state Senate Bill 1053, the Contraceptive Equity Act, requiring health insurance coverage for the full range of FDA-approved birth control methods without restrictions or co-pays beginning Jan. 1, 2016.
Despite these advancements, some people will still have to pay for birth control expenses if their employer has a religious exemption or a plan purchased on or before March 23, 2010 that hasn’t had any major overhauls since ACA was instated (“grandfathered” plans).
To learn more about the guidance on birth control from the federal government, read this article from NBC.
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