The Idaho state House of Representatives has just introduced HB 530 which would allow any and all employers to not cover birth control in their health insurance plans. This is absurd on so many levels:
- The Obama administration has made it clear that the requirement to include contraceptives as preventative care is not directed at employers, it’s directed at insurance companies. To allow employers to opt out of standard care is as ridiculous as it would be to allow employers to opt out of patient privacy laws.
- Contraceptives are used by the vast majority of women and a lot of women use them for things other than strictly birth control.
- It is in the best interest of both insurance companies and employers to give their clients/employees access to contraceptives since the pill is a lot cheaper than a baby and factors such as maternity leave and sick days due to a sick child, especially when it’s a single mother, and scheduling issues around day care are all add cost and strain on a business.
- Reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies also reduces the number of abortions by making it so that only those who want to have a baby do so, reduces how many people go onto welfare by making it so that more women who have babies are financially ready to do so, and reduces the number of children born to single parents.
- Finally and most importantly, health care decisions should be made by the patient and her doctor, not her employer. Sure, she could still get contraceptives, but without the insurance coverage it would be prohibitively expensive for those who need it the most (i.e. those who cannot afford to have a child).
This bill is anti-patient rights, anti-women rights, anti-family, and anti-business. All it would serve to do, if passed and found to be legal, is add more people on to the rolls of welfare and increase the number of abortions performed in this state. I know this is standard Republican shtick, but it goes against everything they supposedly stand for.
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As someone who uses birth control, I support your viewpoint but I want to point out to those that don't purchase or have used many kinds of birth control that it can be done very cheaply – I think 'prohibitively expensive' is a stretch. I've seen a 30-day pack for as low as $4 a month.
On average I would pay about $20 dollars/month for generic birth control if I didn't have insurance. With insurance I currently pay $10 and that is the average for generics. This may still be too much for someone on an especially restricted income, and there are women who don't respond well to pills and have to use another option like the patch or ring, but in general it's not a huge cost burden compared to other prescription medications or monthly living costs.
Anyway, just want to give some perspective. Making birth control completely free as Obama intends to do is probably the best for society as someone who can't afford $20/month probably can't afford $10/month from time to time either.
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Thanks for adding those details. As a single man I was ignorant of the exact costs and options. For most people $20 would not be prohibitively expensive, but no one should have to choose between birth control and eating, filling up the gas tank, or paying utility bills. Birth control has to be used consistantly to be effective and even skipping a week would increase the chance of pregnancy. These are the women who need it most since they would need welfare to support a child and couldn't afford the lost time at work for maternity leave.
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I have a Mirena IUD. This is my 2nd Mirena, the first having “run out” after the 5-year-limit. My physician prescribed it after exhaustive tests to ensure I wasn’t ill because of uncontrolled bleeding every month. Yes, the Mirena is birth control, but it’s stopped a medical problem for me as well.
The cost for my original Mirena was mostly covered by insurance, but I still had to ante up $300.00–which was explained to me like this: $5.00/month for the co-pay for birth control = $60.00/year X 5 years (the length of time a Mirena can be left in) = $300.00. The insurance mainly paid for the Dr visit.
The cost of a Mirena these days without insurance? $500.00+. Just for the IUD–not including the Dr visit.
So. Even with insurance, even with a low co-pay, birth control CAN be prohibitive. And nothing else I could take would fix my medical issue other than the Mirena IUD.