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Insurance Companies Required To Cover Birth Control Under Obamacare

birth control

The Obama administration announced Monday that insurance companies are required to accept all forms of federally approved methods of birth control for women.

The newly released healthcare guidelines come on the heels of reports that insurance companies were not meeting coverage requirements mandated under the Affordable Care Act.

A statement released by the Department of Health and Human Services said, “As the law has been implemented, issues have been raised by some women and from members of Congress that insurance companies were not covering the contraceptive method recommended by doctors, as well as concerns from issuers that the existing guidance did not provide enough detail about how specific types of contraception should be covered.”

[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Gretchen Borchelt” author_title=”VP of the women’s law center”]

Insurance companies have been breaking the law, and today the Obama administration underscored that it will not tolerate these violations (…) It is now absolutely clear that all means all — all unique birth control methods for women must be covered

[/quote]

The NY Times reports that in addition to the new guidelines, the Obama administration has indicated that insurers must cover counseling and genetic testing for women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer. Specifically, testing for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which can increase a woman’s risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.

Top Democrats in Congress, according to MSNBC, have have recently been pressing the White House to clarify the guidelines and empower states to take enforcement action when necessary. Washington Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Senate health committee, said on Monday that she was pleased with the progress.

Immortal News recently reported on the development of the Color Genomics Color Test, which is a $249 test capable of testing 19 genes connected with breast and ovarian cancer, including mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

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