Will Your Birth Control Coverage Be Blocked in 2018?

New regulations may mean that you have to pay out of pocket for contraception.

By Cheryl Alkon

 A rollback of the birth control mandate means some prescription contraceptives may not be covered.

Phanie/Alamy

              Is your contraception covered by your work or school health insurance plan? If that plan is offered by an employer that declares a religious or moral objection to birth control, you may now need to pay out of pocket for it moving forward.

Employers Can Stop Paying for Contraception Coverage

            Following promises made in May 2017, the Trump administration issued two regulations in October that allow for any employer, school, hospital, or insurer to stop paying for contraception coverage through health insurance policies due to religious or moral objections. This is a significant change from what was in place before, when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) called for most employers, save for some religious organizations, to cover contraception for its insured employees as a preventive health measure.

            “The previous policy had a very limited exception specifically for houses of worship and other religious employers tied to a house of worship," says Adam Sonfield, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization based in the United States that is devoted to sexual and reproductive health and rights around the world, and the executive editor of theGuttmacher Policy Review journal. He also authored a blog post about the topic. The new regulations “allow any employer to claim a religious or moral exemption and get a full-fledged exemption. It will be up to the employer about whether the employee will still get coverage” for birth control, he says.

A Rollback of the ACA’s Birth Control Mandate

            As part of the ACA, private insurance plans are required to cover a wide range of services, including preventive health for women andcontraception, Sonfield says.