President seeks to expand insurance coverage for over-the-counter birth control

After FDA approved Opill, activists had pushed for insurers to pay for the medication.

The Biden Administration announced a proposal that would expand contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act more than at any other point in a decade. 

Birth control access is a significant issue for women in this Country. Power to Decide, a reproductive rights think tank, conducted research in 2022 that found that 19 million women who are eligible for publicly-funded birth control don’t have access to the full range of those options. Those areas are known as contraceptive deserts. The organization’s CEO, Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley, praised the administration. 

“Meaningful access to contraception is fundamental to reproductive well-being,” she said. “We are deeply grateful to the Biden-Harris administration for this proposed rule and believe that it must be finalized and implemented as soon as possible.” 

In July 2023, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved an over-the-counter birth control pill on Thursday that activists say will be a game-changer in addressing the issue of contraceptive deserts. One of the major points for activists was to get insurance plans to cover drugs even though they didn’t need a prescription. Biden’s attempts have sought to do that. 

The proposed rule would require insurance plans to cover over-the-counter (OTC) contraceptives — including emergency contraception and Opill, the first OTC daily birth control pill — without a co-pay and without requiring a prescription. Health plans would also be required to disclose to beneficiaries that OTC contraceptives are covered without co-pays and a prescription. Finally, the new rule also requires insurance plans to cover all contraceptive methods without a therapeutic (generic) equivalent.  

Taken together, this new proposed rule would eliminate many of the barriers people currently face when seeking coverage for the contraception they need. The administration estimates that the proposed rule could benefit as many as 52 million women. 

National polls indicate widespread support for free birth control. A poll conducted by YouGov and the Economist noted that 91 percent of people who supported abortion rights wanted birth control to be free. Sixty-one percent of those who were antiabortion also supported expanded birth control access. 

Many groups in the movement welcomed the move, including the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice. Lupe M. Rodríguez, its executive director, spoke on the Biden administration’s birth control announcement. 

“We believe that everyone should have access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health care, including birth control, regardless of their income, age, race, disability, immigration status, or what state they call home,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll continue fighting for reproductive justice and building power in Latino/x communities across the country so that everyone has access to the care they need.”