U.S. Department of Health Orders Insurers To Pay For Your Birth Control

Blisstree Editors

Women's reproductive rights can be a fairly grim news topic, so today we're pretty excited to report that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is ordering insurance companies to provide prescription birth control with no copay or deductible as a preventative care treatment. Woot! But before you cancel your next order of Yaz, there are few things you should know.

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  • The new benefits won't kick in until one year from now, and that's for new health insurance policies.

  • Eventually, nearly all policies will cover costs of birth control, but keep up with your insurance company's changes.

  • The new rules allow religious organizations which offer coverage to refrain from covering birth control options that are "inconsistent with their tenets."

  • Other preventative care services that will be included in the list of free services for women include: STD counseling, domestic violence screening and counseling, breast-feeding support and gestational diabetes screening.

The new rules come on the recommendations of an independent Institute of Medicine panel and The rules surrounding religious organizations are still up for debate, though; the DOH has specifically asked the public for their reactions as it tries to "strike the balance between providing access to proven prevention and respecting religious beliefs."

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What do you think? Should insurance policies be required to provide contraceptive coverage regardless of religious belief? Tell us what you think below (it's ok, you can go pour yourself a glass of wine first to celebrate the money you'll be saving a year from now):

Photo: Thinkstock

You can reach this post's author, Briana Rognlin, via e-mail at briana@blisstree.com.

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