The Biden administration wants insurance companies to cover the cost of over-the-counter contraception, without cost sharing or a prescription. The move, according to a White House briefing paper, “has only become more important since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
The proposed rule would also strengthen coverage of prescribed contraception and require health plans to disclose that over-the-counter contraception is covered at no cost to the insured.
“Perrigo Co.’s Opill is currently the only daily birth control pill approved for sale without a prescription by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but the proposed rule covers other forms of over-the-counter contraceptives, including emergency contraception such as morning-after pill Plan B, spermicides, birth control sponges, and condoms,” per Reuters. “The rule will also require that health plans cover all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and some devices, including IUDs, without cost sharing in many cases.”
The White House estimates the proposal would impact about 52 million women of reproductive age who are privately insured.
“This proposed rule, if finalized, would be the most significant expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act since 2012, when contraception was first required to be covered,” the announcement said. “Also today, the Biden-Harris administration is issuing new guidance to help ensure that patients can access other preventive services such as cancer screenings, that must be covered without cost sharing under the Affordable Care Act.”
The announcement said that reproductive rights “are under attack and Republican elected officials remain committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act.” It added that officials in some states “have made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control in addition to abortion and Republicans in Congress have attacked contraception access nationwide by proposing to defund the Title X Family Planning Program. "
In a separate statement, presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris said, “President Biden and I stand with the majority of Americans — Republicans and Democrats alike — who support access to contraception. And we continue to call on Congress to pass federal legislation that restores reproductive freedom nationwide.”
The Washington Post called the proposal “a tough lift,” because any proposed rule has a 60-day comment period and then sometimes months for a final plan. Meanwhile, the presidential election looms in two weeks.
Reproductive rights have been an issue in the presidential campaign so far. As The Hill reported, former President Donald Trump, “who appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe, has taken credit for sending the issue of abortion back to the states and has praised the patchwork of laws as a ‘beautiful thing to watch,’ as some states enact near-total bans on the procedure.”
But the article added that “the former president has also said he would veto federal legislation to ban abortion if it reached his desk.”
If the proposed rule is finalized, it would take effect in 2025.