The Biden administration is proposing a rule that would provide over 50 million women with private insurance access to over-the-counter birth control pills and other contraceptives at no cost, the White House said on Monday.
The rule, which expands a federal mandate requiring health insurers to cover preventative care services at no cost to patients under the Affordable Care Act, is being proposed by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury. It would come into effect in 2025 if finalized.
“This rule, once finalized, will expand contraception coverage for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance,” White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein said during a briefing.
“For the first time ever, women would be able to obtain over-the-counter contraception without a prescription at no additional cost, and health plans would have to cover even more prescribed contraceptives without cost sharing,” she said.
Perrigo Co.’s Opill is currently the only daily birth control pill approved for sale without a prescription by the Food and Drug Administration, but the proposed rule covers other forms of over-the-counter contraceptives, including emergency contraception such as morning after pill Plan B, spermicides, birth control sponges, and condoms.
The rule will also require that health plans cover all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and some devices, including IUDs, without cost sharing in many cases. It would also require private health plans to disclose to customers that those contraceptives are covered without cost sharing.
The proposal comes just two weeks before the 2024 presidential election, in which abortion rights has been a key issue following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has made access to abortion central to her campaign.
Harris touted the proposed rule in a statement issued by the White House, saying the administration “is proposing the largest expansion of contraception coverage in more than a decade. This new proposed rule will build on our Administration’s work to protect reproductive freedom by providing millions of women with more options for the affordable contraception they need and deserve.”
The statement also knocked congressional Republicans who have “repeatedly blocked legislation to protect the right to contraception across the country.’
“While we fight to protect and expand health care, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn,” she said.
Former President Donald Trump, Harris’ Republican rival for president, has bragged about appointing three of the conservative justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, but has since said abortion laws should be determined by U.S. states, stopping short of proposing a national ban that could imperil his chances with swing voters in the November election.