Should Your Boss Dictate Your Family Planning Options? President Trump Thinks So.
President Donald Trump finally made it clear today. He believes business owners like him should have a decisive role in their female employees’ intimate and personal family planning decisions.
In two new rules released this morning, the Trump administration authorized virtually any employer to deny its employees contraceptive coverage based on a religious or moral objection. This means that a woman could lose birth control coverage — a benefit that is otherwise guaranteed by law — simply because her boss has a religious objection to it.
And because these rules go into effect immediately, soon women will literally be paying for their bosses’ beliefs.
The rules will undermine the Affordable Care Act’s guarantee of coverage for birth control without a copay. The birth control benefit allows women to choose any Food and Drug Administration-approved birth control method free of cost. It has been a game changer for women since taking effect in 2012 — it’s estimated that women saved more than $1 billion on birth control pills alone in 2013.
This has given women more power to make decisions about their lives, their families, and their futures.
Existing regulations already exempt houses of worship that object to this coverage from having to provide it to their employees. For certain other employers, there’s an “accommodation” that acts as a workaround to ensure that employees and their families get the coverage they need despite their bosses’ religious objections. Those employers simply have to fill out a one-page form stating their objection and then the health insurance company provides the coverage directly to the employee.
Commentary
After Trump’s complete and total failure to repeal Obamacare in its entirety, he’s resorting to the use of executive orders to ‘muck up the works.’ His latest target? The Obamacare birth control mandate.
Background
Starting in 2012, under Obamacare, newly issued insurance policies were required to cover all FDA-approved contraceptives without imposing co-pays or deductibles. This rule applied to all non-grandfathered individual, small and large group, and self-funded health insurance plans.
There were later rulings, clarifications and lawsuits. But, bottom line, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance in May 2015, clarifying that at least one form of all 18 FDA-approved methods of birth control must be covered without cost-sharing. And if a provider were to recommend a specific birth control option, it had to be covered by the insurance plan without cost-sharing as well.
Impact
Obamacare’s birth control mandate has been extremely popular with Americans, with over 77% of women and 64% of men reporting support according to a January 2016 poll by the Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation Feminism Survey.
It has impacted (literally) millions of American women because controlling the number and spacing of children is a critical, on-going issue for most of us.
According to a report by the Guttmacher Institute:
Over 99% of sexually-active women use at least one method [of birth control] at some point during their lifetime and currently 62% of American women are currently using some form of contraceptive.
Moreover, the financial impact of the Obamacare “no-copay” rule has been significant – dramatically reducing average out-of-pocket expenditures for prescription drugs. According to a January 2017 Kaiser Family Foundation report, The Future of Contraceptive Coverage :
Contraceptives make up an estimated 30-44% of out-of-pocket health care spending for women. Since the implementation of the ACA, out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs has decreased dramatically. The majority of this decline (63%) can be attributed to the drop in out-of-pocket expenses on the oral contraceptive pill for women. One study estimates that roughly $1.4 billion dollars per year in out-of-pocket savings on the pill resulted from the ACA’s contraceptive mandate. By 2013, most women had no out-of-pocket costs for their contraception, as median expenses for most contraceptive methods, including the IUD and the pill, dropped to zero.11
President Misogyny
It appears that any public policies designed to help American women maintain their personal and financial freedoms are obvious targets for President Misogyny.
This should be no surprise to anyone because Trump clearly disrespects women as evidenced by the never-ending stream of disgusting comments he makes about them.
Well, maybe “words will never hurt me,” but Trump’s public policies toward women can certainly be compared to “sticks and stones.”
In her op-ed The Trump administration is coming for women’s health and bodies (The Hill,10/7/17), Dawn Laguens writes:
In every way imaginable, Trump has turned back the clock on women’s health and rights.
This administration has undermined the nation’s family planning program, rolled back safeguards for transgender people, threatened DACA recipients, revoked Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Orders, and spent months attempting to block millions from accessing preventive care at Planned Parenthood.
Over the last six months, the administration has appointed radical, anti-birth control extremists to top positions in federal agencies and departments. And in case there was any doubt where his priorities lie, on his first full workday in office, Trump eliminated funding for programs that fight global maternal mortality.
Now the Trump administration has just taken direct aim at a woman’s fundamental right to decide whether and when she has children. The rule means that any employer can decide that a woman can no longer have birth control covered by her health insurance. They can object for religious reasons, or for a more nebulous “moral” objection standard.
Read it and weep. Better yet, FIGHT BACK!
California leads
Once again, California continues to maintain the lead when it comes to guaranteeing contraceptive rights.
In 1969, California decriminalized abortion.
In 1972, California amended the state constitution to include a woman’s “right of privacy,” constitutionally guaranteeing the right to abortion in the state.
In 2003, California passed SB 1301, the Reproductive Privacy Act, which established that California women have both a constitutional and a statutory right to abortion, separate and independent of federal law.
In 2013 California’s SB 493 permitted pharmacists to dispense self-administered hormonal birth control without a prescription.
In 2014 California passed the Contraceptive Coverage Equity Act of 2014, which requires private and Medicaid managed care plans to cover all prescribed FDA-approved contraceptives for women without cost-sharing (consistent with Obamacare rules for employer-provided and insurance exchange plans).
In 2016 California’s SB 999 authorized pharmacists to provide a 12 month supply of birth control pills to patients (previously limited to a 90 day supply).
And, on October 6, 2017, California’s Attorney General Becerra sued the Trump Administration, challenging Trump’s new rule that employers could deny insurance coverage for employees’ birth control medication.
Time for California-style health care
When it comes to women’s health care, California really is different. It’s time to get a healthcare system consistent with our values of fairness, sustainability and affordability. It’s time to lead.
If you’re sick of Trump messing with our health care, get behind SB 562, The Healthy California Act. It would guarantee “comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage and a health care cost control system for the benefit of all residents of the state.”
If you agree that we need California Medicare for All, take action!
> Tell your State Assemblymember to co-sponsor SB 562, The Healthy California Act!
> Sign our Open Letter to Governor Brown and Our Legislative Leaders!
Dear Governor Brown, Senate President Pro Tem DeLeón and Assembly Speaker Rendon:
Californians need and want guaranteed healthcare that covers everybody for everything for life!
We support the Healthy California Act introduced by Senator Ricardo Lara and co-sponsored by Senator Toni Atkins.
Help all Californians fight the heartless and cruel threats to our health care from Washington DC.
Let’s HEAL California with SB 562, the Healthy California Act!
Yours Truly,
