The Biden administration is proposing a rule that would provide over 50 million women with private insurance access to over-the-counter birth control pills and other contraceptives at no cost, the White House said Monday.
The rule, which would expand a federal mandate requiring health insurers to cover preventive care services at no cost to patients under the Affordable Care Act, is being proposed by the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury. It would go into effect next year if it is finalized.
“This rule, once finalized, will expand contraception coverage for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance,” White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein said at a briefing.
“For the first time ever, women would be able to obtain over-the-counter contraception without a prescription at no additional cost, and health plans would have to cover even more prescribed contraceptives without cost sharing,” she said.
Perrigo Co.’s Opill is the only daily birth control pill approved for sale without prescriptions by the Food and Drug Administration. The proposed rule would cover other forms of over-the-counter contraceptives, including emergency contraception, such as the morning after pill Plan B, spermicides, birth control sponges and condoms.
The rule would also require health plans to cover all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and some devices, including IUDs, without cost-sharing in many cases. It would also require private health plans to disclose to customers that those contraceptives are covered without cost-sharing.
Abortion rights has been a key issue in the presidential election following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has made access to abortion central to her campaign.
Harris touted the proposed rule in a statement issued by the White House, saying the administration “is proposing the largest expansion of contraception coverage in more than a decade. This new proposed rule will build on our Administration’s work to protect reproductive freedom by providing millions of women with more options for the affordable contraception they need and deserve.”
The statement also knocked congressional Republicans who have “repeatedly blocked legislation to protect the right to contraception across the country.’
“While we fight to protect and expand health care, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn,” she said.
Former President Donald Trump, Harris’ Republican rival, has bragged about appointing three of the conservative justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, but he has since said abortion laws should be determined by the states, stopping short of proposing a national ban that could imperil his chances with swing voters in the November election.
