Opinion Survey: Reproductive Health Coverage in Health Reform

A national opinion survey conducted for the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) demonstrates that Americans strongly believe that health insurance should include women’s reproductive health services and that medical experts – not politicians – should decide the details of a benefits package.

Findings from the survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted by the Mellman Group include:

• Voters overwhelmingly support the broad outlines of reform and requiring coverage of women’s reproductive health services. Seven-in-ten (70%) favor a proposal that establishes a National Health Insurance Exchange with a public plan option. If the reform were adopted, voters overwhelmingly support requiring health plans to cover women’s reproductive health services (71% favor-21% oppose).

• Absent coverage for women’s reproductive health services, majorities oppose reform. If reform eliminated current insurance coverage of reproductive health services such as birth control or abortion, nearly two-thirds (60%) would oppose the plan and nearly half (47%) would oppose it strongly.

• Supporting coverage of comprehensive reproductive health services would benefit Members of Congress. A plurality (45%) would feel more favorably toward their Representative if they voted to cover reproductive services, while 24% would feel less favorably, and 32% said it would make no difference.

• Voters would feel much less favorably about their Representative if they voted to cover services like Viagra for men, but excluded reproductive services for women. Voters overwhelmingly reported that they would feel less favorably toward their Member of Congress if they voted for reproductive services for men and not for women (71%), while only 9% would feel more favorably toward their Representative.

• Voters want an independent commission to make coverage decisions, not politicians. A strong majority of voters (75%) prefer that an independent commission of citizens and medical professionals make decisions about what should be covered under reform rather than the President and Congress (17%). Fully 73% of voters want an independent commission to decide whether abortion should be covered, while just 16% want the President and Congress involved.

• Even in the face of opposition arguments, majorities support requiring coverage of abortions under reform. After hearing strong arguments both for and against covering abortion under reform, two-thirds (66%) support coverage, agreeing that health care, not politics, should drive coverage decisions. A majority of voters (72%) reported that they would feel angry if Congress mandated by law that abortion would not be covered under a national health care plan.

• Voters want rules to stop insurance companies from discriminating against women. Even in the face of industry claims of too much government interference, 62% agree that reform should establish new rules to treat everyone fairly and stop discrimination, while far fewer (32%) side with opponents’ claims.

>> Read more: Time Magazine talks about NWLC's polling

>> Learn more: New Opinion Research Shows Broad Public Support for Reproductive Health Coverage in Health Care Reform