Health Insurance Should Be Required To Cover Birth Control

For most of the religious right the only acceptable method of birth control is something like that pictured above. But the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a non-profit independent advisory group, thinks all methods of birth control should be widely available to all women in this country -- and they think it should be free.

The IOM has just released a new report and that report says there should be a wide range of women's health issues required by the government to be covered in health insurance policies (and paid for through those policies). The report recommends that all contraceptives (including the morning-after pill), sterilization, and reproductive education & counseling should be in insurance policies covering women.

If these services were covered and paid for by insurance, then they would be available and used by many more women -- since people tend to put off or not use services they cannot afford. And if more women could access these services then more lives would be saved (both the lives of women and babies). The report says this would allow women to "better avoid unwanted pregnancies and space their pregnancies to promote optimal birth outcomes."

According to the IOM:

Women who have unintended pregnancies are more likely to have little or no prenatal care, and engage in risky behaviors such as smoking, drinking or experience domestic violence. Birth control can also help women space time between births. Short periods between pregnancies have been associated with increased risk of higher mortality for children under age 5, low birth weight, preterm births, stillbirths, miscarriages, and maternal death.

And a side benefit of these items being covered by health insurance is that it would save money. Unwanted pregnancies and the problems associated with short periods between pregnancies are costing billions of dollars each years -- billions of dollars that doesn't need to be spent. I hope the government listens to the IOM and requires this. Saving women's lives and improving their health while saving money sounds like a win-win situation to me.

But you know some heads are going to explode when those on the religious right read this report. They and their representatives in Washington have already decided that women don't need family planning, doctor's care, or contraceptives (hence the attempt to cut off Planned Parenthood and other clinics from funding). You can bet they'll fight tooth-and-nail to keep these items out of health insurance policies.

By the way, here are some other issues regarding women's health that the IOM wants covered by insurance:

-- Screening for gestational diabetes for pregnant women between 24 and 28 weeks

-- DNA testing for high-risk HPV for women starting at 30 years of age; recurring every three years

-- Annual counseling on sexually transmitted infections for all sexually active women

-- HIV testing and counseling on an annual basis for sexually active women

-- Breastfeeding support and counseling, including costs of renting breastfeeding equipment

-- Screening and counseling for interpersonal and domestic violence

-- One preventive care visit a year for adult women