Affordable Care Act (ACA)

All summer, we’ve been talking about getting contraception covered in all the new health insurance plans created under the Affordable Care Act. For a quick review: in July, a panel of non-partisan experts released their recommendations that included not only all FDA-approved methods of contraception, but also an incredible list of other needed preventive health services for women. A few short weeks later in August, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) adopted these recommendations in full, paving the way for millions of women to soon have access to contraception WITHOUT A CO-PAY! Read more »

On Tuesday, the US Census Bureau released new data on health coverage in the US and the numbers were not encouraging. The data showed an increase in the number of women lacking health insurance, bringing the number of uninsured women to the highest level in over a decade. Not surprisingly in this economy, fewer women had employer based insurance coverage and public programs like Medicaid were not able to make up for the coverage lost in the private sector. NWLC’s analysis shows that for women ages 18 to 64: Read more »

After reading news reports on the recent Kaiser Family Foundation polling, you might think that the most important finding is that public support for the law is at a plateau, and that a large number of everyday Americans are still unsure how the law will directly benefit them. But, I was pleased as punch to see that 66% of those polled support the recent decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to cover contraceptives without co-payments. Read more »

Over 60,000 of you signed our petition to support no-cost birth control, and earlier today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is adopting expert recommendations to require health insurers to cover contraception, along with a number of other preventive health services for women, without charging women co-payments. We got you covered – birth control without a co-pay will soon be a reality!

Thank HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for moving women’s health a huge step forward. Read more »

A new year is right around the corner, and it seems like everyone is setting goals and resolutions for what they hope to achieve in 2011 (and beyond). So it’s especially fitting that earlier in the month, the U.S. Read more »

Does your employer-sponsored health insurance cover your birth control? Most of us couldn’t have said “yes” ten years ago.  Read more »