Free birth control is free, including sterilization for men, according to a state law reiteration. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman proposed a law by which health insurers are required to provide free birth control medication and treatments both for men and women.
The interesting part of this project is that it breaks the boundaries of Obamacare by requiring insurers in NY to cover non over the counter contraception for men, including sterilization.
This falls under the NY law provisions of the Affordable Care Act that gives insurers the responsibility to cover all food and drug administration approved methods of birth control for both genders.
Earlier this year, Schneiderman started analyzing the contraception policies of insurance companies and reached the conclusion that people shouldn’t be penalized for agreeing with their physician to a certain contraception method.
All contraception methods are under equal relevance and should be allowed on a cost-free basis for both men and women. This comes as a response to reports that women are denied coverage for certain treatments and insurers are demanding improper co-pays.
Some complained that insurers use the so-called “medical management techniques”, allowed under the Obamacare law, to restrict access to contraception.
With this new regulation, insurance companies oblige themselves to provide all the benefits that women deserve under the Affordable Care Act, at no inconvenience. The law is designed to eliminate any uncertainty around the ACA reforms, opinion in the press reveals.
According to the general terms of the agreement, insurers must cover without cost at least one form of contraception in each of the 18 methods for women and men.
For women, this includes the ring, the patch, birth control pills and intrauterine devices. The morning-after pill is included in the list.
If by now information on how specific types of contraception should be covered were debatable and uncertain, the new approach is set to eliminate that.
Gretchen Borchelt, VP of the women’s law center had a very irreverent position towards the way law was applied in the past. The previous methods were described as law violations that should not be tolerated.
The new law is set to do exactly that.
Further information has been unveiled about additions in the new guidelines. Obama administration added that insurers must cover counseling and genetic testing for women with history of breast or ovarian cancer in their families. The test should show if the virus could have mutated with high chances to develop and reappear.
The complementary regulations in this case offer the opportunity of a developed and streamlined health care management system, with viruses under research and development and individuals with an increased rate of awareness when it comes to health. Affordability allows for efficient care.
Image Source: theguardian.com