LANSING – Standing alongside groups fighting to protect women's rights and support healthy families, Speaker Pro Tempore Pam Byrnes (D-Lyndon Township) today announced legislation requiring insurance companies to cover prescribed contraceptives just as they do any other drug. Byrnes' bill is part of the "Prevention First" package of bills designed to promote women's health, reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions, help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and reduce the strain on public health services.
"Contraception is a basic aspect of health care used by most women at some point in their lives," Byrnes said.
"Insurance companies must put the health of our families first – not turn their backs on our residents.
Contraception plays a vital role in the success of our families and access to contraceptive care should not be limited
to a privileged few who can afford it."
Byrnes' bill aims to create equity in health care by closing the gap in between what men and women pay for health care.
Women of reproductive age currently spend 68 percent more than men in out-of-pocket health care costs.
The Prevention First package is intended to protect access to affordable family planning by ensuring the
following:
- Give women affordable access to birth control
- Promote honest, medically accurate, abstinence-plus sex education
- Guarantee that women who survive rape or sexual assault are offered information about, and access to, emergency contraception
- Ensure insurance coverage for birth control
- Expand family-planning services
- Require that pharmacists fill birth-control prescriptions
- Support teen-pregnancy prevention efforts
"We can't let partisan politics get in the way of helping our families," Byrnes said. "By reaching across the aisle, my
colleagues and I can work together to push for reform that the majority of Michigan residents want and all Michigan
families deserve."