Insurance Coverage for Women Birth Control - Research Paper Example

Insurance Coverage for Women Birth Control During the period of 1998, insurance companies jumped on the newly created medicine Viagra and started involving it in their insurance coverage plans (Baglia 52). This incident clearly reflected that health insurance coverage providers have been biased against women as they were not ready to provide coverage for birth control and women had to pay for birth control from their own expenses and as soon as the Viagra prescription hit the market, it was covered by health insurers. Due to this event, women felt that the insurance companies thought of them as inferior beings and this led to the protest created by women for coverage of birth control devices. Women believe that they have a right to free birth control and they have been fighting in its favor for several years, on the other hand the insurance companies have countered the proposal of insuring birth control segment because they believe this will further increase the premiums that individuals have to pay for a health plan. During 2002, New York successfully became the 20th state of US who made it legally obligatory for insurance companies and employers to provide coverage for contraceptive for women (Hammaker 98). Due to this 50% of women started having access to some sort of free coverage for birth control and contraceptives. During the year 2003, similar kinds of legal adjustments were made to the constitution by the states of Arizona and Massachusetts. During 2012, President Obama made an announcement that the health insurance coverage providers will be legally responsible to cover for women’s contraceptives without taking any charges from them. Before this announcement was made 28 states had already added this kind of rule to their constitution. There are several reasons that support of free coverage of birth control and contraceptives for women, these includes Body The mandate for free contraceptive coverage for women have been circulating throughout the senate for several years, in 2002 the subcommittee of congress took up this mandate in the senate. Gloria Feldt states that its high time since the idea of free coverage have been debated and its time to implement the idea and she believes that health insurance coverage providers are giving better deals to the male gender than the female gender (Feldt 132). According to research that when women reach their age in which they become eligible to give birth, they spend more money on contraceptives and birth control through their own money as compared to men. Females of US protest that the pill required for birth control is quite expensive as it can only be obtained through prescription and due to the high cost of the pill; several females fail to obtain it at the desired time period. The estimated cost of the pill for birth control and a visit to the physician leads to an expenditure of $30 on monthly basis (Feldt 132). Those who are protesting in favor of free coverage of birth control state that they can not figure out a single reason due to which employers and the insurance companies are not covering birth control and contraceptives as birth control have several benefits for them. Activists take support through a study that states that when $1 is spend on birth control and issues such as family planning, a total of $4 to $14 is saved by the public which they would have spend in pregnancy and birth control related procedures (Feldt 132). Sex is a part and partial of life, individuals who stop getting in the act just due to the high cost of birth control end up suffering from health diseases and they even experience emotional issues and stress. If coverage for contraceptives and birth control is provided, individuals would freely continue to take part in healthy sex and keep themselves away from other health issues. Population control is a major issue that can be countered with the assistance of such initiatives. Insurance companies counter the arguments of the female activists that they are wrong in costing the benefits that may be derived from free health insurance coverage for contraceptives. They believe that it is a good move to provide coverage to the poor woman for contraceptives in accordance to economic sense but the women who come from middle income and high income families will not take the risk of being pregnant just because the coverage of health insurance they have purchased does not covers contraceptives. According to Tom Wildsmith that the act of women activities of taking support from cost effective data in order to propagate for the coverage of contraceptives is completely wrong (Wildsmith 2002). He further believes that if employers and the insurance companies will be forced to cover the cost of contraceptives, health insurance premium cost will rise. This would negatively impact employers as they are already cutting down on health insurance coverage because of its high cost and if costs are further raised they will further cut employees and health benefits and will decrease their purchase of insurance plans. Insurance plans are already becoming very expensive and addition of contraceptives to coverage plans will further elevate the cost and insurance plans will become unaffordable for a very huge population. When insurance coverage will become more expensive and people will fail to obtain it, they will be unable to pay for other health issues which are more important than pregnancy related issues. John Cochrane argues against the implementation of free coverage for contraceptives and birth control, he states that this would lead to an end in the research over methods used for contraceptives and birth control (Cannon 2012). He stated that if the insurance companies will start providing coverage, they will first gain more as they will increase their premiums, secondly if free coverage will be provided, people will stop seeking for low cost birth control methods and thus the incentive for researchers to find such instruments will decrease and researches will come to a stop. Women who protest for free coverage of contraceptives demand for all sorts of contraceptives and no lope hole should exit within such a system, still several states have exempted organizations on the basis of religion. Women activities have accepted this clause as long as it is restricted to those organizations that are directly linked with institutions that are religious in natures such as hospitals that are affiliated with religion. Women activist even express that they have gained success and will continue to gain success ascertain companies that feel they are more responsible to the society have already added contraception in the health benefits program. These companies include the Chrysler Group who added contraceptives to their health coverage plan during 2002. There are certain activist groups that want government to implement anti-abortion rule to the constitution and they might have an issue with the government implementing the notion of coverage for contraceptives, but only a few of these groups have become an obstacle in the protest for the right of free contraceptives for women. Those anti-abortion groups who have become an obstacle and fighting very hard to stop such actions from being implemented within US constitution. For example: in the region of Kentucky, these groups are against government funding for birth control pills as they believe that these pills and abortion is equal in nature. Conclusion Obama’s plan to provide free coverage to women for contraceptives and birth control has various benefits such as decreased spending of public, better health conditions and decreasing the rate of population growth. Those against state that it will increase insurance premiums and anti-abortionists believe that it is unethical and is equal to taking part in the act of abortion. Works Cited Baglia, Jay. The Viagra ad venture: masculinity, marketing, and the performance of sexual health. New York: Peter Lang, 2005. Print. Cannon, Michael. "Cochrane on ObamaCare’s Contraceptive-Coverage Mandate | Cato @ Liberty." Cato @ Liberty. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. .. Feldt, Gloria, and Carol Trickett Jennings. Behind every choice is a story. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2002. Print. Hammaker, Donna K., and Sarah J. Tomlinson. Health care management and the law: principles and applications. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar/Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Wildsmith, Thomas. "INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE: ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY." Heartland Institute. N.p., 1 Oct. 2002. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. www.wwwwww.climatewiki.org/sites/all/modules/custom/heartland_migration/files/pdfs/15320.pdf Read More