The White House announced Monday that the Biden-Harris administration plans to increase contraception accessibility, expand insurance coverage, and encourage reproductive education in a proposed ruling under the Affordable Care Act.
The press release stated that the proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury would provide qualifying women with better access to over-the-counter contraception without a prescription at no additional cost.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
These private health plans would also be required to disclose the coverage of over-the-counter contraception and provide women with information about their coverage.
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The proposal mentioned providing birth control and contraceptive education to college students, a movement Harris initiated when she met with 68 colleges and universities across 32 states in 2023.
The statement included efforts to cover other preventative services, such as cancer screenings, without additional costs.
"This proposed rule, if finalized, would be the most significant expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act since 2012," the statement read.
This comes 16 months after Biden's third executive order in June 2023, which also aimed to strengthen access to contraception for specific groups, including Medicaid and Medicare recipients, military members and college students.
The administration defined this proposal as a response to the 'dangerous and extreme abortion bans" following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
"President Biden and Vice President Harris will continue to call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law to ensure that women in every state are able to make their own decisions about reproductive health care," the statement read.
