The Biden administration is proposing a rule that would offer girls with non-public insurance coverage entry to over-the-counter contraception tablets and different contraceptives for gratis, the White House mentioned on Monday.
The rule, which expands a federal mandate requiring well being insurers to cowl preventative care providers for gratis to sufferers below the Affordable Care Act, is being proposed by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury. It would come into impact in 2025 if finalized.
“This rule, as soon as finalized, will develop contraception protection for 52 million girls of reproductive age with non-public medical health insurance,” White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein mentioned throughout a briefing.
“For the primary time ever, girls would be capable of get hold of over-the-counter contraception with out a prescription at no further price, and well being plans must cowl much more prescribed contraceptives with out price sharing,” she mentioned.
Perrigo Co.’s Opill is presently the solely every day contraception capsule authorised on the market with out a prescription by the Food and Drug Administration, however the proposed rule covers different types of over-the-counter contraceptives, together with emergency contraception similar to morning after capsule Plan B, spermicides, contraception sponges, and condoms.
The rule may even require that well being plans cowl all FDA-approved contraceptive medication and a few units, together with IUDs, with out price sharing in lots of circumstances.
The proposal comes simply two weeks earlier than the 2024 presidential election, through which abortion rights has been a key difficulty following the Supreme Court’s resolution to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has made entry to abortion central to her marketing campaign.
Republican rival former President Donald Trump has bragged about appointing three of the conservative justices who made the ruling however has since mentioned abortion legal guidelines must be decided by U.S. states, stopping wanting proposing a nationwide ban that might imperil his possibilities with swing voters within the November election.