HHS announced it has adopted expert recommendations to require health insurers to cover contraception, along with many other preventive health services for women, without charging women co-payments. We got you covered – birth control without a co-pay will soon be a reality!
Thank HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for moving women’s health a huge step forward.
For many years, the National Women's Law Center and other progressive groups have been working to get contraception covered in all health insurance plans. Thanks to the hard work of these organizations and activists like you, we did it – the Affordable Care Act enabled HHS to make this historic change. This benefit will be a reality for new health care plans in the fall of 2012.
This decision is a milestone in the effort to improve the health and lives of women and their families, and it underscores the real and tangible impact the new health care law will have on women’s lives. At the same time, however, HHS is unfortunately considering a proposal to exempt some religious employers from providing contraceptive services, and we will work to ensure that no women are denied the guarantee of this vital coverage.
The HHS announcement expands the list of preventive health services that insurance companies will be required to offer at no cost to the individual. It will include contraception, yearly well-woman visits, support for breast feeding, counseling for sexually transmitted infections, and screening and counseling for domestic violence, among others.
