Joe Biden is showing that he is not going out quietly. His administration has announced a new proposal that would have private insurance companies provide free birth control pills and condoms to all the people they insure.
Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the morning-after pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills or morning-after pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
…“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” the health and human services secretary, Xavier Becerra, said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B”.
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Expect Republicans, evangelicals, and the Catholic church to go ballistic about this. Their long-term goal is to prevent anyone having sex other than within the framework of heterosexual marriage, and even then only for the purpose of procreation. This move goes completely counter to that.
I do not know if this move requires congressional approval, which would be tough to get.
One of Biden’s aims probably is for “Republicans, evangelicals, and the Catholic church to go ballistic about this.” It would divert attention from Palestine.
“It would divert attention from Palestine”
Sadly likely. Nobody can just do a good thing because it’s good.
FWIW, keeping focus on Palestine doesn’t seem to be doing much good. Besides, this is only likely to distract people who don’t give a shit about a genocide anyway.
Yes, all the crazed religious republicans will raise an uproar about this.
But, maybe it has a chance, because you know who really wants it? The insurance companies, and Big Corporate usually has a lot of say.
Before the part of Obamacare that required coverage for birth control was gutted, the insurance companies were mighty pleased with it, not for any good reason, of course, but because they’d save money. It costs them so much less to cover birth control than to cover pre-natal care and childbirth and possible complications and c-sections and the neonatal intensive care unit, that they really wanted it enforced.
But, even with insurance companies heavily bribing republican congress members, I don’t think that it has much of a chance, if congress has to vote it in.
the religious right should all be very happy for Biden’s proposal.
free birth control would help stem unwanted pregnancies and, i expect, would lower abortion rates.
This is bad policy. Having an insurer cover routine things means we collectively pay more for their being the middlemen. Insurance should be for things that are unlikely to happen that have large costs, not for things that are expected to happen and carry low costs. If the government wants to subsidize birth control, it should do so itself.
@garnetstar #4 :
I don’t know much about how insurance works so this may be a dumb question: If insurance companies want this because it saves them money, why don’t they just offer it? Why is a law necessary?
Perhaps they all know it will save them money in the long run, but none of them wants to be the first solitary one who loses money by giving it away in the short run.
#3 ard
I’m not so sure; bear in mind Biden actually withheld a shipment of weapons from Israel a little while back, and recently issued the strongest warning yet about possible future shipments. I know, the action comes drastically late, was far smaller than it should have been, and going with warnings rather than action is the coward’s way… yet it remains the most USA has ever done to curtail Israel’s bloodthirst.
(AFAIK)
@5 Robbo
I assume this is said tongue in check as we all know that the religious right doesn’t care at all and in fact is solidly behind unwanted pregnancies.
@Robbo #5:
The religious right does not want to reduce unwanted pregnancies, particularly among white people. I’ve seen some of the more extreme ones state things like “the teenage pregnancy rate is getting too low” and “rape babies are a gift from God”.
Note that increasing unwanted pregnancies while making abortion unavailable does not, in itself, increase the population growth rate more than slightly, as it can result in people having the same number of kids (just earlier than they were ready for) as they would already have had, or occasionally, fewer. It can also increase the rate of maternal death and infanticide. It requires additional factors to significantly boost the population levels, and some of them don’t particularly need large amounts of unwanted pregnancies. But it’s not like they’re known for being practical or smart.
Overlapping @7, I think that Eighen@8’s reason probably plays a role.
And then, the religious right, republicans, and other crazies, are really against it. Immoral, don’t you know (what they mean is, women shouldn’t control their own bodies.) An insurance company who just went out there offering it without being forced to by law might be shunned.
In the insane US system, it’s usually employer companies who contract with insurance companies as to which insurance companies the employees can choose among to get coverage from. You can only choose to get insurance from the select few companies that your employer has contracted with.
If the right objected to one insurance offering free birth control, employers might drop the insurance company from their offerings, to not “offend”.
That’s how the Obamacare law got overturned! A company fun by religious freaks (Hobby Lobby) claimed that it’s religious freedom was violated if they were forced to offer their employees insurance companies with coverage for birth control. SCOTUS bought this completely unconstitutional argument, so the birth control mandate went away.
Another victory for theocracy.
What a well-poisoning headline. Insurance is the actual problem here, not the supposedly ‘free’ birth control.
Why do private for profit businesses have any choice in what healthcare and medication is covered by health insurance in the first place?
If you’re paying their ridiculous premiums, of course they should cover your medications, or what is the point of the insurance? In most countries, you can in fact get basic everyday medications like birth control and antibiotics for free at the local pharmacy.
No need to pay a Dr hundreds of dollars for an office visit in order to write a prescription, which of course is a huge cost savings for both insurance companies and the patient.
But sure, focus on claiming that Biden is giving those women free things, rather than making insurance cover over the counter birth control. Ignore the welfare queen dogwhistle. Odd how they never complain about insurance giving away free Viagra or free Ozempic, even though ED or being overweight isn’t generally a life- threatening condition, unlike pregnancy.
Tethys @13, you are so correct in everything you say.
And the answer to, why doesn’t insurance cover your medical costs? Just what you said, they are private companies whose only motive is profit. For sure, they do not care if you get medical care or not. And, of course, they pay politicians well to make sure that laws requiring companies to cover your costs, no exceptions, are never passed.
Before Obamacare (about 2009? which every single republican in congress voted against), insurance companies could refuse to take you as a customer at all if you had any “pre-existing condition”, i.e., if you’d ever had any medical problem in your life that they thought would be expensive for them to continue to pay for.
They also could set a “maximum lifetime benefit”, that they’d only pay out a certain maximum amount in your whole life. So, if you had, say, childhood leukemia at age 5, spent a lot of insurance money on that, you may have hit your maximum amount at that age, after that, for the rest of your life, they don’t cover anything, you’re on your own.
Sometimes I wish that my grandparents had stayed in Italy, never emigrated here.
“Free” ?
@garnetstar, 14:
Serious question: have you considered moving “back” there? Or to somewhere else? Your grandparents did it. What would it take to make you look for somewhere better? (You’ll find it…)
sonofrojblake @16, yes indeed, I have long considered moving to a more civilized country! For some years now, in face. Might still do it if the republicans turn this one into an autocracy.
But, I have a lot fo requirements: it must be somewhere that may remain a little cooler in severe global warming, must not be too far away from my five siblings, must be forested, as I can”t live without immersion in nature and the animals and plants that live in forests (I don’t think I could adapt to really foreign flora and fauna.) So, for example, a lot of Europe is very deforested.
I can only think of Northen Canada, but it’s mighty hard to immigrate, they have strict conditions (perhaps I could ask for asylum?) Also, they’ll be overwhelmed by all the Americans seeking refuge from fascism.
So, if anyone can think of any place?