It's a delivery that is long overdue: Federal health officials on Monday defined birth control as preventive health care. That means that, starting next year, private insurers of new plans will have to cover FDA-approved contraceptives without any fees or co-payments (public insurance plans already provide basic birth control coverage without co-pays). This is a huge victory for millions of women -- and especially for African-American women, who have long struggled to pay for birth control and, as a result, suffer from the nation's highest rates of unintended pregnancy.
Birth control is critical to the well-being of women and their families. Studies have shown that women who have access to contraceptives and use them consistently have a greater chance of graduating from high school and establishing careers. When women lack access to contraception, they experience many disadvantages, including achieving less education and earning lower salaries. These disadvantages also affect their children, who are less likely to finish high school and have higher rates of incarceration.
For many African-American women, cost often determines whether we can choose and maintain the most appropriate method of birth control, especially during hard times. In a recent survey, 51 percent of African-American women ages 18 to 34 said they'd had trouble purchasing birth control and using it consistently due to the cost. That's one reason African-American women are three times more likely than white women to have an unintended pregnancy and, as a result, have higher rates of abortion. But we're not alone: a 2008 report from the Guttmacher Institute showed the vast majority of abortions in the U.S. were due to unintended pregnancies, regardless of race or economic status. Overall, nearly the half of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended.
The new federal ruling has the potential to change that. Under the current system, women with health insurance have to pay a deductible before they get any coverage for birth control. And once the coverage kicks in, they still have to make a co-payment every time they refill the prescription. For women struggling to keep food on the table, contraception becomes an unaffordable luxury. The new system eliminates this burden for the millions of women who will be covered under new health insurance plans.
This announcement is a victory for women's health, but not yet a complete one. Federal health officials are now considering a proposal that would allow some religious employers to deny women access to this vital health care service. For the next 60 days, HHS is accepting public comments on this week's announcement before finalizing the details of the ruling. Now is the time to let them know that we fully support their decision to help millions of American women have better access to preventive care, and that all women, regardless of their employer or insurer or health care provider, should have timely access to affordable birth control if they want it or need it. You can read the new guidelines here, and make your voice heard by posting a comment here.
There is no question that eliminating co-pays for birth control will help reduce unintended pregnancies. As access improves I hope all black women will seize the opportunity to plan their pregnancies. In doing so, we will improve the quality of our lives and families.
Vanessa Cullins is vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
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Birth Control and Health Insurance
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Oh boy. for someone who has been on birth control pills since 16 and who worked as a pharmacy tech for 5 yrs, i know first hand that bc copyas are ususally no more than $10. so all of these excuses about copays being too much is bs. women arent taking bc becuase they either dont want to, dont care or are ignorant to contraceptives. lets stop with the damn excuses.
So don't have sex or get free condoms. No one compels you to have sex. Why should my insurance premiums go up because you want the "luxury" to have sex without a condom? This is absurd.
I would think everybody on the Right would be ecstatic about this proposal. It will do more to prevent abortions than anything the Right does. Everybody should be pleased about that. I'd hardly call that absurd.
"Studies have shown that women who have access to contraceptives and use them consistently have a greater chance of graduating from high school and establishing careers. When women lack access to contraception, they experience many disadvantages, including achieving less education and earning lower salaries. These disadvantages also affect their children, who are less likely to finish high school and have higher rates of incarceration."
We aren't given the specifics of the population used in this study, but I have doubts that simply having access to birth control means a woman is going to graduate from high school. The link between birth control use and graduating from high school, having careers, etc. thus far is most likely wealth. Those that have been able to afford birth control come from wealthier families and areas, which it makes it more likely they will succeed in school, as well as being able to afford birth contraceptives. While birth control may help women and girls with low income prevent unwanted pregnancies, it is not the be all end all.
I'm glad you support the measure. And I am not being offensive here, but your doubts are a bit naive, I'm afraid. Getting pregnant IS a real sure way for people in poverty to end their school careers. You think they can afford day care while they're in school? You think it likely their schools will have free day care centers in them???
You said it yourself. "Those that have been able to afford birth control come from wealthier families and areas, which it makes it more likely they will succeed in school, as well as being able to afford birth [control]." That's really what it's all about. But not just for school kids. Women of work age as well.
and men more responsible.If the fact that she get an std live HIV,four or five kids by dead beat Dads
wont stop her stop unprotected sex,I doubt this will do anything to help unwanted pregnancies.
The money would be better off spent lowering or making other needed prescriptions free.
It is less expensive to prevent pregnancies than to help out women who have had to drop out of school due to a pregnancy, and have kid(s) and no jobs skills. Medicaid is a large piece of budget. This will help pare it down.
One should take offense when they see famine in Africa and blame so-called 'overpopulation'.
Thank goodness human nature has a way to ensure the survival of the human species despite the economic injustice that comes from this rotten imperial monetary system that's now bankrupt.
Famines in Africa have two major causes. Civil wars, (territorial, resource, power--it doesn't matter) and changes in growing climate. Especially the former.
And civil wars are fueled by the financial interests on Wall Street/City of London that run the West's bankrupt imperial monetary system.
If you were to look at the same chart for a developed nation, it would be relatively stable - a quasi-vertical line indicating the young replacing the old.