Administration Moves to Broaden Access to Birth Control
- February 03, 2023
The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury issued proposed rules February 2 (88 Fed. Reg. 7236) expanding access to contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The proposed rules would further the government’s interest in protecting women’s health and their right to make reproductive decisions, while respecting religious objections to contraceptive coverage, HHS said in a press release. The agency noted that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health has placed a heightened importance on access to contraceptive services nationwide.
“Now more than ever, access to and coverage of birth control is critical as the Biden-Harris Administration works to help ensure women everywhere can get the contraception they need, when they need it, and--thanks to the ACA--with no out-of-pocket cost,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Today’s proposed rule works to ensure that the tens of millions of women across the country who have and will benefit from the ACA will be protected.”
The ACA generally requires non-grandfathered group health plans and non-grandfathered group or individual health insurance coverage to cover certain contraceptive services without cost sharing. The current regulations include exemptions from providing coverage of contraceptive services for group health plans, institutions of higher education arranging student health insurance coverage, health insurance issuers, and individuals with religious or moral objections.
The proposed rules would leave in place the existing religious exemption for entities and individuals with objections, but would rescind the moral exemption rule, according to a fact sheet.
The current regulations also provide an optional accommodation for group health plans and sponsors of student health insurance coverage that allows objecting employers and colleges and universities to remove themselves from providing birth control coverage while ensuring women and covered dependents enrolled in their plans can access contraceptive services at no additional charge.
The proposed rules would leave in place this optional accommodation, while also establishing a new pathway—referred to as an individual contraceptive arrangement—that individuals enrolled in plans or coverage sponsored, arranged, or provided by objecting entities that are not eligible for or have not opted for the existing accommodation may use to obtain contraceptive services at no cost directly from a willing provider or facility that furnishes contraceptive services.
Under the proposal, a provider or facility that furnishes contraceptive services in accordance with the individual contraceptive arrangement for eligible individuals would be reimbursed for its costs by entering into an arrangement with an issuer on a federally-facilitated exchange or state-based exchange on the federal platform, which in turn would seek an exchange user fee adjustment, the fact sheet said.
Comments on the proposed rule are due by April 3. .