Report says birth control in the USA should be free
Summary of story from Time, July 22, 2011
A new report from the the USA’s Institute of Medicine (IOM) says free and accessible birth control is an essential part of a full range of preventive health services that should be offered to all American women.
And it should, the report says, be part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010.
The ACA puts a new emphasis on preventive care as a cost-saving and effective way to pre-empt illnesses and cut medical costs.
This guideline, though non-binding, is expected to heavily influence the Department of Health and Human Services as it refines which services will count as “preventive medicine” under the Affordable Care Act.
Since September 23, 2010, all new plans have been required to cover preventive services with no out-of-pocket costs for consumers.
The law’s very existence has been politically controversial, but the new report from the IOM – which deals exclusively with women’s health and reproductive issues – may be especially so.
The report was commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services as part of an effort to determine what should fall under the preventive rubric, and while opponents might see a political agenda at work, the Institute insists that its non-binding recommendation is based on clinical data.
“The committee defined preventive health services as measures — including medications, procedures, devices, tests, education and counseling — shown to improve well-being, and/or decrease the likelihood or delay the onset of a targeted disease or condition,” says the report.
I fully expect that the sorts of US citizens who have campaigned to have abortion outlawed again will all have the screaming ab-dabs at this news. My memory also throws up several remembrances of pharmacists in the US refusing to dispense the morning-after pill to women, so I wonder how this will go down with them.