Insurance Coverage for Birth Control

The health care law makes preventive care more accessible and affordable to millions of Americans. This is especially important to women, who are more likely than men to avoid needed health care, including preventive care, because of cost. To help address these cost barriers and make sure all women have access to preventive health care, one section of the health care law requires all new and non-grandfathered private insurance plans to cover a wide range of preventive services, including services such as mammograms, pap smears, smoking prevention and contraceptives without co-payments or other cost sharing requirements.

Opponents of birth control in Congress are working night and day to enact new laws and policies that would deny millions of women access to birth control -- including access already guaranteed to women by law. Thankfully, so far, supporters of birth control have stopped the worst of these Congressional attacks.  Although the anti-birth control efforts have taken several forms, they all would have the same effect: taking birth control coverage away from women nationwide. A comparison of opponents’ and supporters’ legislative priorities makes the difference clear: while opponents of contraception would take it away from women, supporters work to ensure that women have access to affordable birth control.