The Biden Administration is ramping up essential insurance policies forward of this yr’s Election Day. On Monday (Oct. 21), the White House introduced a proposed plan that may require medical health insurance to totally pay for over-the-counter contraception. That consists of preventative strategies like condoms, the ‘morning after’ tablet, and contraception capsules, per The Associated Press.

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The proposed rule wouldn’t impression these on Medicaid, the insurance coverage program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their very own guidelines round Medicaid protection for contraception, and few cowl over-the-counter strategies like Plan B or condoms.

Free Birth Control? White House Says Yes

Right now, well being insurers should cowl the price of prescribed contraception, together with prescription contraception and even condoms that medical doctors have issued a prescription for. But the brand new rule would broaden that protection. If the proposal is applied, individuals with medical health insurance would be capable to purchase condoms, contraception capsules, or ‘morning after’ capsules from storefronts free of charge with out a prescription.

For instance, the emergency contraceptives that individuals on personal insurance coverage would be capable to get free of charge embody levonorgestrel. Without a physician’s prescription, girls might pay as a lot as $50 for a single dose of the morning-after tablet. And girls who delay shopping for the remedy with a purpose to get a physician’s prescription would possibly jeopardize the tablet’s effectiveness. In order to stop being pregnant, levonorgestrel must be taken inside 72 hours after sexual activity.

“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra stated in a press release. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”

What Else To Know About The Plan?

If applied, the brand new rule would additionally require medical health insurance corporations to totally pay for the once-a-day Opill. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration permitted the over-the-counter contraception tablet final yr. A one-month provide of the capsules prices $20.

For context, the Affordable Care Act was the primary introduction to federal mandates for personal medical health insurance to cowl contraceptive care. The ACA requires plans to cowl the price of FDA-approved contraception that a physician has prescribed for preventative causes. America’s Health Insurance Plans, the lobbying group for personal well being insurers, stated Monday it was reviewing the proposal.

As talked about, the proposal comes days earlier than Election Day. As the polls rapidly strategy, Vice President Kamala Harris has centered her presidential marketing campaign on a promise of increasing girls’s healthcare entry. Harris has sought to tell apart herself from Donald Trump. The GOP presidential nominee is who appointed a number of the judges who agreed to undo nationwide abortion rights in 2022.

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Associated Press reporter Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.