Birth Control Controversy

contraception is a critical issue for wowork force of solely jump ons and neighborly class because the decision to assimilate a fluff impacts a cleaning ladys physical, mental, and delirious wellness. contraception is likewise very costly and is an write off that a woman primarily shoulders. Not every employers health redress plan provides returnss for prescription(prenominal) medicine contraceptives and turn of eventss. A personal survey of 50 adults with varying types of policy policy plans, asked if their health indemnification plans provided reportage for carry stop, sildenafil, or abortion.Every genius surveyed maintain that his plan provides coverage for Viagra, a familiar enhancement drug, and abortion. The same survey showed that 26% of the insurance plans do non provide benefits for Food and do drugs Administration (FDA) sanction prescription contraceptives or devices for the solitary purpose of preventing motherliness (personal communication, 20 10). Not providing coverage for fork out subdue, yet providing coverage for other types of prescription drugs, services, and devices, is judicial against women and has a negative impact on an employers and the governments economics.The federal official government should potency that all health cargon plans provide coverage for FDA approved contraceptives because non providing them is discriminatory against women. Preventive health C be and Finance Women that plan their pregnancies usually take hold pre-natal c be and take better care of themselves and unborn child. Moreover, women who have planned their families put enough outper flesh between each pregnancy so not to put a strain on their physical, mental, and emotional welfare. This is better for both mother and child.Furthermore, to obtain FDA approved prescription ge give in nurse, women must first be seen be a licensed physician and have an examination. That examination includes a Pap smear, bureau exam, and natural covering for sexually transmitted diseases. Without the motivation of obtaining contraception, women whitethorn not schedule an exam that could detect, and treat, potentially aliveness-threatening diseases. beforehand(predicate) detection of disease, such as cervical and breast outhousecer, is vital to making a amply recovery.Family prep devices and prescriptions should be a benefit that all health insurance plans provide because more than half of the pregnancies that elapse within this country are not planned. The join States has the postgraduateest rate of accidental pregnancies of the entire industrialized world. Of those pregnancies, and half come to term. The other pregnancies end because of self-produced abortion, also cognise as miscarriage, or the woman elects to have an abortion (Roan, 2009).With insurance provided birth control these statistics can decrease considerably. Lack of coverage, and the out-of pocket expense for birth control, is a factor in the high r ate of unintended pregnancies because women are going without birth control, or opt for less effective methods for family planning. Women degenerate approximately two-thirds of their lives in an attempt to avoid pregnancy, provided still a juristic age of women experience an unintentional pregnancy by the time they reach age 45 (Vargas, 2002).Women are primarily responsible for preventing pregnancy and rely on prescribed contraceptives and devices because there is no effective systema skeletale of over-the-counter birth control available for womens use. The most effective form of birth control, other than abstinence, is oral contraceptives, which is better known as the pill. With insurance, co-payments for the pill range from $10 to $50 per month (Andrews, 2010). Without insurance coverage, the expense of the pill can range from $20 to $75 per month. Over a 25-year period this could amass from $6,000 to well over $20,000 (Guttmacher, 2010).Therefore, women are paying upwards of 68% higher health care expenditures than their male counterparts (Zolman, 2002). In comparison, the only form of birth control used by men is a condom, and they are available without prescription and not costly. Pictured above are different types of birth control available. All, except condoms, require a prescription and are used by women. Photo dexterity of Dawn Stacey Sexual dissimilitude Some health insurance plans exclude contraceptives because it views them as quality of flavor drug and not medically necessary.If a recompense deems a woman to have a clinical need for contraception, such as recurring headaches, endometriosis, acne, or irregular menstruation, an insurance company may look at to authorize benefits. However, Viagra is one quality of spiritedness drug that insurance plans cover without question (Vargas, 2002). Viagra is an oral treatment that a doctor prescribes altogether to men who suffer from erectile dysfunction. Covering expenses for one quality of l ife drug, aimed for the improvement of mens sex lives, and denying benefit of another quality of life drug, intended to prevent pregnancy for women, is undoubtedly discriminatory.The exist traffic Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sustain employers are legally bound to provide a full range of family planning options if other forms of preventive health prescriptions and devices are part of their benefits package. Title VII of the obliging Rights minute of 1964 says it is unlawful when employers fail or hold up to hire or discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with take note to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of job because of such individuals race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (Zolman, 2002, p. 8). health and prescription coverage is part of the compensation and terms of employment as mentioned in Title VII. To provide yet clarification, the United States government added an amendment in 1978 called the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), and it reads women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or associate medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment related to purposes, including of receipt of benefits under boot benefit programs (Vargas, 2002, p. 9).The current regulations for health insurance governance vary and are subject to different protocol. The Employment Retirement Security Act (ERISA) is a federal law that oversees self-funded insurance plans. A self-funded insurance plan, also known as self-insured, is a plan that an employer provides and pays for from a self-established fund. ERISA oversees the compliance of procedure, such as providing insurance entropy and instructions on how to file grievances, however it does not require employers to provide specific benefits (Zolman, 2002).Within ERISA is a loophole that self-funded insurance plans have used to avoid following mandates that may be in effect through with(predicate) state legislation. Fully insured hea lth plans contract through insurance brokers, are subject to state insurance mandates, and are not governed by ERISA (Zolman, 2002). The Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act (EPICC) is a federal contraceptive prescription and device mandate that has gone before Congress on several occasions but has not been palmy in passing into law.Nevertheless, there have been 27 states that have passed there on version of EPICC since 1998 (Andrews, 2010). However, requirements for coverage vary from state to state and self-funded insurance plans are exempt from complying. Throughout the last decade there have been several lawsuits filed against employers unwilling to include prescription contraception benefits. The first such case was Erickson versus Bartell. In 2001, Jennifer Erickson brought a lawsuit of sexual discrimination against Bartell dose Company for failing to provide birth control in a prescription drug benefit package.Federal Judge Lasnik determined that Bartell Drug Company was in violation of Title VII and the PDA (HRMagazine, 2005). Sadly, the majority of employers who exclude prescription contraceptives choose to wait for legal action before changing policy. In those cases, baseball club loses as precious taxpayer dollars are spent. Employer Expenses Many mess have the misconception that it is expensive for an employer to provided prescription contraceptive benefits and that the employer should be able to limit available benefits to help forestall health insurance premiums to a minimum.A study conducted by the Washington Business Group on Health concluded that employers experience greater direct and validating financial losses when an employee becomes pregnant. The indirect expenses include the employees absence for doctors appointments, fatigue, or illness. substantiative cost can also include trim productivity, and the need to train another person to fulfil the pregnant employees position when absent. Direct costs can r each well above $10,000 for expenses related to pre-natal care, delivery, and one-year of infant pediatrics (HRMagazine, 2005).