From the moment Trump got elected, women's access to free birth control was looking shaky. But even after he signed an executive order against the Affordable Care Act, which required insurance companies to cover contraceptives without copays or deductibles — and Congress began to dismantle the ACA — it was unclear what would take its place. House Budget Chair Diane Black has just provided us with some clues, though, and the prognosis does not look good for birth control.
"That is not part of our program," she said at a press conference when asked about contraceptives being covered as preventative care under employer-sponsored health plans. She defended this choice by saying that people can go to other clinics (which Republicans have said before in defense of defunding Planned Parenthood), though as one reporter pointed out, finding a clinic isn't relevant to this issue.
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Even before the new Republican health plan sets in, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could take away the right to free contraceptives by amending their status as preventative care, according to Rewire.
So, what does this mean for us? It's still not written in stone, but it's likely that insurance plans will no longer have to cover birth control (though they still can if they choose to). This means the roughly 48.5 million women who Health & Human Services say gained access to birth control coverage under the ACA may have to pay out-of-pocket costs.
To put that into perspective, IUDs cost over $1,000 in most states, and the pill will likely cost around $20-$100 per package.
Not everyone will have to suffer the effects of the new healthcare plan, though. New York has required its insurers to cover birth control, as well as medically necessary abortions, and California, Illinois, Maryland and Vermont already have similar legislation, reports KTLA.
Barring these exceptions, the people hurrying for IUDs weren't imagining things — getting one could soon take a major financial toll.