Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also referred to as Obamacare, birth control pills are already free for those with private health insurance and a prescription from their doctor. However, a new proposal by the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury that was announced by the White House on Monday would remove the need for a prescription. ABC News reported that “the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or ‘morning after’ pills from local storefronts without a prescription.”

Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said of the announcement: “Today’s proposal to require plans and issuers to cover contraceptive services — without a prescription and at no cost to the individual — is a long overdue step in increasing access to basic, reproductive health care to millions of women.” Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chiquita Brooks-LaSure referred to the proposal as a “historic action” that she considered to be “vital to ensuring people have control over personal decisions about their health, lives, and families.”

In a statement, President Joe Biden claimed “contraception access is under attack,” noting that the proposal reflects his and Vice President Kamala Harris’s “commitment to expanding access to quality, affordable contraception.” He added, “We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family.”

If finalized, this rule would go into effect in 2025 and could impact up to 52 million American women with private health insurance. Notably, this proposal comes as abortion continues to be one of the most pressing issues for voters this election season. According to a Newsweek poll, the economy has been the most important issue on voters’ minds, with immigration and abortion duking it out for second place. However, the outlet found that in recent months, abortion has “risen most and … overtaken immigration.” […]

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Former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) sought to make health insurance more accessible, all while reducing premiums and the government’s budget shortfall, and allowing Americans to keep their preferred medical providers. However, individual market premiums surged, hundreds of billions of dollars were added to cumulative U.S. deficits and seven million consumers had their plans canceled following the ACA’s passage, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity study found.

“Obamacare has failed in every particular – it failed to make health care more affordable; it failed to improve the health of Americans; it piled on an enormous amount of additional debt on taxpayers; it has principally enriched massive insurance company conglomerates, and it now serves as a major impediment to real heath care reforms that would empower patients and doctors,” Phil Kerpen, American Commitment and Unleash Prosperity president and one of the study’s co-authors, told the DCNF. “As we show in this paper, every single promise that was made to pass this law turned out to be false.”

Obama claimed the ACA would slow the growth in U.S. healthcare spending and “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family,” but individual market premiums more than doubled from 2013 to 2017 and deductibles soared, according to the study. […]

— Read More: www.lifenews.com