Today, the administration is unveiling
the preventive services insurers will be required to cover with no co-pays or out-of-pocket costs beginning September 23. “Cancer screenings, including mammograms and colonoscopies, as well as obesity prevention services, immunizations,
blood pressure screenings and tobacco cessation services are among those that will be available” at no extra charge, the Wall Street Journal
reports. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
took credit for this provision on Monday and Republicans seem to agree that identifying diseases before they become chronic is a smart way to reduce health care spending over the long term.
But as Dana Goldstein pointed out yesterday, many Republicans
don’t think the same is true for family planning services, which will also be available at no additional charge. Regulations for women-specific preventive services — the result of
Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) amendment — are expected to be issued in the near future, but Republicans are already laying the groundwork for opposition. From
Goldstein’s piece:
The conservative groups are particularly worried that a birth control coverage mandate could include teenage girls and young women covered under their parents’ health insurance plans. “People who are insured don’t want to pay for services they don’t need or to which they have moral objections,” said Chuck Donovan, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation. “Parents want to have a say over what’s covered and what’s not for their children.” <...>
“I don’t want to overstate or understate our level of concern,” said McQuade, the Catholic bishops’ spokesperson. “We consider (birth control) an elective drug. Married women can practice periodic abstinence. Other women can abstain altogether. Not having sex doesn’t make you sick.”
Planed Parenthood and other health organizations are lobbying HHS to include
birth control and other family planning provisions in the category of cost-exempt preventive services, noting that increasing co-payments often put birth control out of reach for lower income women. “Average copayments in employer-sponsored insurance have increased considerably over the past decade, to as much as $46 in 2009 for many brand-name drugs,” one study showed.
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