Some patients and health care providers say they continue to face barriers to care since the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling. egg and overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Here's what the government's measures mean for consumers.
Improving the availability of free contraceptives as required by the Affordable Care Act
Most employer and individual health insurance plans must cover contraceptives approved or cleared by the Food and Drug Administration without requiring patients to pay out-of-pocket. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter to health insurance companies calling on them to provide free contraceptives.
Health plans and providers also continue to complicate patients' efforts to obtain free contraceptives, the administration said. Federal officials this week cited an October 2022 report from House Democrats that analyzed barriers to contraception and announced that at least 34 contraceptives were found to require out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Some of these products are newer, clinically available, such as vaginal rings that last a year instead of a month like other products, and progestin-only oral contraceptives that patients can take at different times of the day. Some offered the above benefits. At the same time every day.
The Department of Health and Human Services notes that insurance companies may deny or make it difficult to access certain medicines by imposing age restrictions, burdensome requirements, or requiring patients to pay out-of-pocket for certain services. Examples of requests, etc.
Protection against emergency abortion
Federal officials announced they would launch a campaign highlighting existing protections for emergency abortions. This includes encouraging patients and health care providers to report cases in which emergency abortions have been refused.
The Biden administration has argued that federal law requires hospitals to perform emergency abortions, even in states that ban or restrict them, but Republicans and some federal courts disagree. Not yet.
New team to enforce federal rules when hospitals deny emergency abortions
Health officials will work with health care providers to ensure compliance with the Emergency Medical Labor Act, known as EMTALA, a federal law passed nearly 40 years ago that requires hospitals to provide health-stabilizing treatments. He said he is creating a specialized team. For all patients, even if that treatment is an abortion.
Abortion rights advocates are calling on the Biden administration to be more aggressive in announcing and enforcing cases in which hospitals and doctors violate EMTALA. Supporters argue that federal authorities are doing too little to combat state abortion bans. Oklahoma woman told to wait in a parking lot until she was sick enough to qualify for an abortion under the state's near-total ban, despite potentially life-threatening pregnancy complications. Citing recent cases. Federal authorities dismissed the woman's EMTALA complaint, saying the hospital did nothing wrong.
The administration faces challenges in implementing its strategy, as enforcement of EMTALA is often circuitous. Determining whether a violation occurred is a months-long process that includes an investigation conducted by the state health agency in the anti-abortion state where the incident occurred. Officials say there are many opportunities for the process to break down, such as state officials confused about whether a case constitutes a violation of EMTALA, or simply unwilling to aggressively pursue charges. , the Washington Post previously reported.
Biden and his allies want to make abortion the defining debate of the 2024 election cycle, and this week's announcement is part of a broader Democratic political push to focus on the issue. becomes.
According to a poll conducted by KFF, a health policy research institute, about 3 in 5 voters (including 1 in 5 Republicans) say they favor Democratic politicians more than Republican leaders when it comes to handling abortion. The answer is that they trust the house. The issue contributed to recent Republican losses in Kansas, Ohio and other states that have supported Republican politicians.
Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said the party should consider softening its focus on abortion bans. “We have to win elections,” he said during a Fox News town hall in January.
In an effort to diminish the gravity of the issue, Republican politicians have focused on Biden's personal views, noting that he is a practicing Catholic who raised questions about abortion early in his career. and argued that Democrats' approach to abortion was too permissive.
