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Vermont Governor Signs Bill Broadening Birth Control Access

contraceptives
Ceridwen/Wikimedia

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has signed a bill that expands access to no-cost birth control for both men and women. 
The bill passed by the Vermont Legislature – H.620 – requires insurers to provide contraceptive methods approved by the FDA to all insured individuals in Vermont without cost-sharing, delays or denial of coverage.  Vasectomies must be covered at no cost.  Women can obtain up to 12 months of hormonal contraceptive methods during one visit.  Medicaid reimbursement rates are increased for long acting reversible contraceptives.  Women who become pregnant must be immediately allowed to sign up for health insurance, rather than wait for an open enrollment period.

Representative Anne Pugh, a Democrat from Chittenden, says two things led her to sponsor the measure.  “One of which was for me the surprising fact that half of all pregnancies in Vermont are unintended. And 74 percent of unintended pregnancies in Vermont result in state funded care costing close to $30 million annually. The second piece was what is happening nationally when you are seeing an increase in barriers to comprehensive reproductive health care and making sure that what has been a strength of Vermont remains that way.”

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England CEO Meagan Gallagher watched the governor sign the bill.  She says the legislature has crafted the most comprehensive birth control bill in the country.  “It's vitally important that our insurance coverage reflects the fact that both men and women are partners. And extending the birth control benefits to vasectomies includes men in the partnership around family planning. And also the fact that this bill ensures that Vermont women will always have access to no co-pay birth control regardless of what happens in Washington,  I can't underscore how important that is. It means that instead of thinking about what birth control a patient can afford a woman can now think about what birth control method is right for her.”

But not everyone agrees the new law is good for Vermont.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington Respect Life Coordinator Carry Handy testified before legislators when the bill was in committee. She contends some provisions were morally objectionable and questioned the bill’s impact on religious freedom.  “We did not oppose the bill. We understand that our beliefs are not the mainstream belief in Vermont and we weren’t trying to stop the bill itself from going forward. But we object to items in the bill. The very narrow exception that we would have been pleased with would have allowed the religious organizations to have a way to opt out of paying for them.”

Chittenden County Republican Representative Paul Dame says Vermont already has the most expensive health insurance plans in the nation and he opposes forcing them to cover more procedures.  “The primary concern is that we are continuing to go down the road of forcing insurance companies to do more and more and more mandates. Whether it's birth control or Band-Aids this is one of the reasons that Vermonters are seeing some of the highest increases in their insurance costs. And that cost get spread out over both the people who use those covered services and people who don't. It's really the larger principle of adding yet another mandate to insurance companies and then forcing employers to pay for it.”

Maryland has enacted similar legislation, but it doesn't take effect until 2018. Most provisions of Vermont's bill take effect this October.
 

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