May 18, 2024

Abortion Insurance Coverage Is Now Much More Complicated

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group that supports abortion rights, there are more than 80 abortion funds that help patients seeking the procedure or medication. Other groups, including the Brigid Alliance, help provide travel, lodging and logistical support to patients.

Contraceptive coverage is not affected by the ruling. Most private health plans, including plans in the health insurance marketplace, must cover contraceptive methods and counseling, including emergency contraceptives, as prescribed by a health care provider, according to Ellen Montz, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Center for Medicare Medicaid Services.

These plans must cover these services without charging a co-payment or coinsurance when provided by an in-network provider — even if someone hasn’t met the deductible, she added.

But there are fears that some types of infertility treatments, which are increasingly covered by employer-provided insurance, could be restricted, depending on the legal language included in abortion bans.

Legal experts say new rules don’t pose an immediate threat to infertility patients, their health care providers and embryos created in labs, but that could quickly change, depending on how the new abortion bans are enforced.

“That could be the next frontier,” said Ms. Raaii of McDermott, Will Emery, “through which states try to enforce these laws against patients, providers, employers, payers or others.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/your-money/health-insurance/abortion-health-insurance-coverage.html

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