Washington Women to Benefit from Ruling

Beginning in September, insurance companies will be required to provide coverage for most forms of birth control under a proposed rule a state regulator said is all but complete.

According to a report in The News Tribune, some 200,000 women in Washington, who otherwise would have paid between $200 and $400 a year for prescription contraceptives, will be among the benefactors, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said after the final hearing his office was required to hold on the new regulation.

Most insurance companies that provide group coverage in Washington include a prescription drug benefit. And of those, about half include birth control pills in their coverage. But even those companies do not cover all forms of contraception, Kreidler noted.

Kreidler has maintained that those companies that have refused the coverage have violated state law against sex discrimination because they have provided men more thorough coverage than women. Kreidler said he would look at changing the wording before the rule’s implementation.

Fourteen states already require comprehensive coverage for FDA-approved birth control methods. In Washington, it is expected to cost employers about $16 a year per employee for prescription coverage, according to Kreidler’s office.