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Cuomo Requiring Insurance Companies In New York To Provide Free Contraception Even In Event Of ACA Repeal
By
David Colon
Published Jan 22, 2017
Modified Jan 22, 2017
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Alex Wong/Getty Images
By
David Colon
Published Jan 22, 2017
Modified Jan 22, 2017
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The coming dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, in whatever form it takes, will have consequences for everyone who's been able to afford or obtain insurance thanks to the program. With the requirement that insurance companies offer birth control for no out of pocket cost on the chopping block, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in an op-ed yesterday that insurance companies in New York will have to continue offering birth control for no co-pay even if the ACA is repealed.
Cuomo announced the coverage in a CNN editorial in which he called on states to protect women's rights if the federal government takes a step back. Cuomo wrote that the New York would take regulatory action to:
ensure that contraceptive drugs and devices are covered by commercial health insurance policies without co-pays, coinsurance or deductibles; that contraceptives are available in amounts exceeding one month's supply at a time; and that all medically necessary abortion services are covered by commercial health insurance policies without co-pays, coinsurance or deductibles.
Cuomo is able to make these changes through regulatory changes, which he's shared online for both contraception and abortion, to the state's insurance laws through the Department of Financial Services.
The regulation Cuomo announced comes on the heels of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman introduction of a bill to make the ACA's free birth control requirement part of state law, which was passed in the Assembly 103-43. However, the bill would probably have had a difficult time passing the Republican-controlled State Senate.
"I welcome the Governor's proposed regulations today to protect access to the health care New York women rely on -- and I won't stop fighting for reproductive justice in the months and years ahead," Schneiderman wrote in a statement released after Cuomo announced the new regulations.
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affordable care act
andrew cuomo
contraception
David Colon
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