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US Appeals Court Rulings on Lawsuits by Nonprofits Objecting to Contraception Download Source Sobel and Salganicoff. 2015. Round 2 on the Legal Challenges to Contraceptive Coverage: Are Nonprofits “Substantially Burdened” by the “Accommodation”?
The rapid spread of the Zika virus in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, the appearances of cases of Zika in the United States, and the association between Zika infection and serious birth defects has generated attention and concern among the public, policymakers, and the media. The WHO declared the cluster of birth defects associated with the virus represents a public health emergency of international concern. President Obama requested $1.8 billion in funding from…
This brief reviews the role of Medicaid in financing and enabling access to family planning services for low-income women; discusses how states have expanded access to these services with Medicaid; and highlights future programmatic challenges in the context of the health care delivery and coverage reforms resulting from the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Kaiser Family Foundation has launched a new interactive map and dashboard that offers the latest national and state-specific data on women's health in the United States via comprehensive, easy-to-access state profiles.State Profiles for Women’s Health allows users to hover over a state in the map to see key facts for women on demographics, health coverage and access to care, sexual health, or pregnancy. Clicking on a state takes users to a dashboard of charts with state-specific…
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires most private health insurance plans to provide coverage for a broad range of preventive services, including most contraceptives for women. This policy was at the center of a Supreme Court case brought forward by for-profit corporations (Hobby Lobby and Conestoga) that successfully claimed that the contraceptive coverage requirement violated their religious rights. Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear yet another challenge (Zubik v Burwell) to the contraceptive…
As the U.S. Supreme Court gears up to hear a new round of legal challenges to the ACA’s contraceptive coverage requirement, a new Kaiser Family Foundation data note finds 10 percent of nonprofits with more than 1,000 employees have requested an "accommodation" to the health law's birth control requirement. Overall, 3 percent of nonprofits with 10 or more employees reported they have sought an accommodation, according to the analysis, which draws from responses to the Kaiser/Health…
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires most private health insurance plans to provide coverage for a broad range of preventive services including Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved prescription contraceptives and services for women. Since the implementation of the ACA contraceptive coverage requirement in 2012, over 200 corporations have filed lawsuits claiming that including coverage for contraceptives or opting for an “accommodation” from the federal government violates their religious beliefs. This brief explains the legal…
A newly-updated infographic from the Kaiser Family Foundation explains the final regulations on employer-based coverage of birth control released today by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. How Does Where You Work Affect Your Contraceptive Coverage? provides a clear explanation of coverage requirements under the new regulations for employers with religious objections to contraceptive coverage, including houses of worship, religiously-affiliated nonprofits and closely-held for-profit corporations. A related summary, also updated to reflect the new regulations,…
Public programs and private health insurance now pay for the vast majority of contraceptive services and supplies for women. However, complex and shifting regulations shaped by state and federal policy, legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage provision, and other factors affect the scope of coverage. New resources from the Kaiser Family Foundation offer the latest information on options and requirements for contraceptive coverage. Private Insurance Coverage of Contraception. This policy brief explains…
In this May post for the journal Women's Health Issues, Alina Salganicoff, Usha Ranji and Laurie Sobel explore Medicaid's role in providing health coverage for women over the past 50 years and outline key issues going forward. The post is now available here.
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