Maryland passes law making birth control free
Vasectomies too
On Tuesday, Governor Larry Hogan signed the Contraceptive Equity Act recently which requires every insurance company to offer birth control at pharmacies for free. Not only is birth control becoming free, but vasectomies, Plan B and more medical medications or procedures that could prevent impregnation are also free. They will not require a co-pay from the customer.
Although Obamacare was meant to provide birth control for free already, certain loopholes allowed particular insurance companies to bypass the requirements and charge each customer a co-pay. Certain insurance companies were able to use certain statutes such as religion to bypass this law and begin charging for the birth control once again.
“Maryland is on the forefront across the board with this act,” said president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, Karen Nelson.
Maryland is now the very first state to pass a congressional act to this extent. Although some states, such as California, Colorado, Massachusetts and North Carolina have placed laws that requires similar contraceptive laws, there has been no other state that has passed a law to this extent. The National Women’s Law Center website states all of the practices and medications that this law applies to.
The Contraceptive Equity Act will go into effect on January 1st, 2018. Although this seems like a lengthy period of time before we can acquire birth control for free, this time period will allow insurers to prepare for the open-enrollment season in 2017.