Birth Control Controversy

Contraception is a exact issue for wowork force of all ages and social class because the decision to attain a baby impacts a womans physical, mental, and emotional easilyness. Contraception is in addition very costly and is an expense that a woman primarily shoulders. non every employers health restitution purpose provides benefits for ethical drug prophylactics and thingamabobs. A personal survey of 50 adults with spaying types of restitution plans, asked if their health indemnity plans provided coverage for line attend, sildenafil citrate, or abortion.Every whizz surveyed maintain that his plan provides coverage for Viagra, a sexual enhancement drug, and abortion. The same survey showed that 26% of the insurance plans do not provide benefits for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pass prescription(prenominal) medicine drug medicine contraceptives or devices for the solitary purpose of preventing pregnancy (personal communication, 2010). Not providing coverage f or present rig, yet providing coverage for separate types of prescription drugs, services, and devices, is discriminatory against women and has a contradict impact on an employers and the boldnesss economics.The federal government should mandate that all health c be plans provide coverage for FDA approved contraceptives because not providing them is discriminatory against women. Preventive Health Care and Finance Women that plan their pregnancies usually obtain pre-natal care and take better care of themselves and unborn child. Moreover, women who have planned their families put enough distance between to each one pregnancy so not to put a strain on their physical, mental, and emotional welfare. This is better for both mother and child.Furtherto a greater extent, to obtain FDA approved prescription consanguinity require, women must first be seen be a license physician and have an mental testination. That examination allow ins a Pap smear, breast exam, and cover for sexu ally transmitted diseases. Without the motivation of obtaining contraception, women may not schedule an exam that could detect, and treat, potentially life-threatening diseases. Early detection of disease, much(prenominal) as cervical and breast bungholecer, is vital to making a plentiful recovery.Family planning devices and prescriptions should be a benefit that all health insurance plans provide because more than half of the pregnancies that occur within this country are not planned. The unify States has the highest rate of accidental pregnancies of the entire industrialized world. Of those pregnancies, only half receive to term. The other pregnancies end because of spontaneous abortion, also known 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 cistron in the high rate of unintend pregnancies because w omen are going without birth control, or opt for less effective methods for family planning. Women spend approximately two-thirds of their lives in an attempt to avoid pregnancy, but still a majority of women examine an unplanned pregnancy by the time they reach age 45 (Vargas, 2002).Women are primarily responsible for preventing pregnancy and rely on positive(p) contraceptives and devices because there is no effective form 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 melt 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 nearly over $20,000 (Guttmacher, 2010).Therefore, women are paying upwards of 68% higher health care expenditures than their male counter pops (Zolm an, 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 courtesy of Dawn Stacey Sexual Discrimination Some health insurance plans exclude contraceptives because it views them as quality of life drug and not medically necessary.If a determine deems a woman to have a clinical need for contraception, such as recurring headaches, endometriosis, acne, or insurgent menstruation, an insurance company may choose to authorize benefits. However, Viagra is one quality of life drug that insurance plans cover without question (Vargas, 2002). Viagra is an oral treatment that a doctor prescribes exclusively to men who stick from erectile dysfunction. Covering expenses for one quality of life drug, aimed for the improvement of mens sex lives, and denying benefit of another qual ity of life drug, intended to prevent pregnancy for women, is undoubtedly discriminatory.The Equal Employment Opportunity equip (EEOC) sustain employers are goodly 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 sevensome of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 says it is unlawful when employers fail or refuse to hire or discharge any individual, or other than discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment 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 further clarification, the United States government added an amendment in 1978 called the maternal quality Discrimination Act (PDA), and it reads women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment related purposes, including of know of benefits under fringe benefit programs (Vargas, 2002, p. 9).The current regulations for health insurance governance vary and are subject to different protocol. The Employment Retirement aegis 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 contour of procedure, such as providing insurance information and instructions on how to accommodate 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 state legislation. Fully insured health plans stupefy through insurance brokers, are subject to state insurance mandates, and are not gov erned by ERISA (Zolman, 2002). The Equity in Prescription Insurance and prophylactic device Coverage Act (EPICC) is a federal contraceptive prescription and device mandate that has gone before Congress on several do but has not been successful 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 lastly decade there have been several pillow slips 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 Drug Company for failing to provide birth control in a prescription drug benefit package.Federal taste 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, society loses as curious taxpayer dollars are spent. Employer Expenses Many people 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 keep health insurance premiums to a minimum.A study conducted by the Washington Business host on Health concluded that employers experience greater direct and validatory financial losses when an employee becomes with child(predicate). The indirect expenses include the employees absence for doctors appointments, fatigue, or illness. Indirect costs can also include reduced productivity, and the need to train another person to fulfill the pregnant employees position when absent. Direct costs can reach well above $10,000 for expenses related to pre-natal care, delivery, and one-year of i nfant pediatrics (HRMagazine, 2005).