A DFL legislative proposal to require insurance plans to cover birth control without co-pays may run counter to President Obama’s efforts to reform health care.
As part of guidelines to help states conform to the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services has directed that states not add benefits as part of the “Essential Health Benefits” (EHB) of health care reform.
From a Feb. 17 bulletin from the department:
“Could a State add State-mandated benefits to the State-selected EHB benchmark plan today without having to defray the costs of those mandated benefits?
A: No. We intend to clarify that under the proposed approach any State-mandated benefits enacted after December 31, 2011 could not be part of EHB for 2014 or 2015, unless already included within the benchmark plan regardless of the mandate.”
However, state Rep. Erin Murphy of St. Paul, one of the authors of the birth control proposal, believes the proposed legislation is in line with the spirit of health care reform.
“The federal government has given the states flexibility and said contraception is prevention,” Murphy said. “Our action is in harmony and not in conflict.”
Murphy is working on the state’s response to federal health care with several outside groups, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which historically takes a cautious view toward adding mandates.
“Our policy is to ensure that small business and their employees have access to affordable and quality health care, and we need to better understand how mandates fit into this,” said Kate Johansen, the chamber’s health care lobbyist. “So before you add it, make sure that there is a benefit.”
Murphy, who introduced the measure on Tuesday, points to statistics showing that both premiums and overall health care costs go down when birth control is added as a benefit. She acknowledges, though, that adding to the state’s already-generous list of requirements for insurers will present a future problem.
The federal government has set benchmarks for insurance mandates that may be more restrictive than Minnesota’s set of 64 now on the books.
Excerpts from Rep. Erin Murphy's Tuesday news conference.
“Minnesota will have to take a look at our benefits as we conform with the Affordable Care Act,” Murphy said. “We will have a discussion of what will be covered in Minnesota. That is a difficult discussion ahead.”
If adopted, the birth control coverage would be No. 65 of the state’s required health care benefits.