The Kaiser Family Foundation has determined that the Affordable Care Act’s coverage doesn’t necessarily extend to all methods.
According to the results of a new study that was published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, not all forms of birth controls are being covered by insurance companies without some forms of costs or copayments.
These apparently include certain forms such as emergency contraceptives as well as IUDs.
The majority of insurance companies have been required by the Affordable Care Act to provide full coverage for birth control so that policyholders will be able to use it for free. However, this recent report has shown that there remain certain gaps in the coverage for this particular type of treatment. The study from the Kaiser Family Foundation looked into 20 different health insurance providers. They included insurers from five different states.
They discovered that despite coverage through health insurance companies, some women still pay for birth control.
Among the contraceptives that were still generating expenses for some women were patches, implants, and vaginal rings. This would, in theory, go against the idea of the health care reform, which stated that birth control should be available to women for free when they had coverage through a health plan.
The requirement for free contraception is both a central and highly controversial component of the heath care reform. It is designed to be one of several methods of lowering costs of medical and wellness services for women.
The health insurance report found that carriers in California, Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and New Jersey were covering some types of contraceptives without any costs for the policyholder, but others were not being fully covered, such as the OrthoEvra patch, the Depo-Provera shot, emergency contraception, and some types of intrauterine devices (IUDs).
Without being fully reimbursed by insurance companies, women can experience some significant costs associated with using some methods of birth control. For example, an IUD can cost as much as $1,000. However, without being able to receive it for free with a health plan, this highly effective form of birth control could be cost prohibitive to many women.