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S. C. R. No. 13 As IntroducedAs Introduced
| 129th General Assembly | | Regular Session | | 2011-2012 |
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Cosponsors:
Senators Sawyer, Kearney, Turner, Schiavoni
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION | To urge the Secretary of the United States Department
of Health and Human Services to include all
federally approved prescription contraceptive
drugs and devices in the list of women's
preventive health services that must be covered by
new health insurance plans.
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BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF OHIO
(THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING):
| WHEREAS, On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) into
law; and |
| WHEREAS, Section 2713 of the Act requires new health
insurance plans to cover women's preventive health care services
and to do so without imposing any cost-sharing requirements on
their members; and |
| WHEREAS, The Act leaves it to the United States Department of
Health and Human Services to define the specific preventive health
care services for which benefits must be provided under Section
2713. The Department's decision is expected to be issued in the
form of guidelines to supplement regulations that were promulgated
under Section 2713 and issued on July 14, 2010; and |
| WHEREAS, Congress's intent in requiring health insurance
plans to cover preventive services was to encourage and invest in
basic health care services to improve healthy outcomes for all
Americans; and |
| WHEREAS, Family planning services improve health care
outcomes and wellness for women and families; and |
| WHEREAS, According to the Guttmacher Policy Review, family
planning enables women to better prevent unintended pregnancy and
plan for pregnancy when they want to have a child. When women plan
their pregnancies, they are more likely to seek prenatal care,
improving their own health and the health of their children; and |
| WHEREAS, According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than
sixty per cent of women in the United States between the ages of
fifteen and forty-four are currently using a contraceptive method;
and |
| WHEREAS, Based on data from the 2002 National Survey of
Family Growth, ninety-eight per cent of sexually experienced women
have used contraception at some point in their lives; and |
| WHEREAS, On average, according to the Guttmacher Report on
Public Policy, a woman spends thirty years of her life trying to
avoid getting pregnant; and |
| WHEREAS, Based on research conducted by Hart Research
Associates and commissioned by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund
in 2010, a majority of American voters (seventy-one per cent) say
prescription birth control should be covered without any
out-of-pocket costs; and |
| WHEREAS, According to Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive
Health, in 2001 half of all pregnancies in the United States were
unintended. Sixty-nine per cent of pregnancies among
African-American women were unintended, fifty-four per cent of
pregnancies among Latina women were unintended, and forty per cent
of pregnancies among Caucasian women were unintended; and |
| WHEREAS, Publicly funded family planning in the United States
prevents nearly two million unintended pregnancies each year
according to the Guttmacher Policy Review; and |
| WHEREAS, In addition to the primary purpose of allowing women
to plan and prepare for pregnancy, other health benefits of
contraception include reduced risk of endometrial and ovarian
cancers, ectopic pregnancy, iron deficiency anemia related to
heavy menstruation, osteoporosis, ovarian cysts, and pelvic
inflammatory disease; and |
| WHEREAS, The impact of copayments and other cost-sharing
requirements as a barrier to accessing affordable contraception is
reflected in the following statistics: according to Perspectives
on Sexual and Reproductive Health, half of all pregnancies in the
United States each year are unintended and, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States
consistently lags behind other developed nations in infant
mortality rates, ranking thirtieth in the world in 2005; and |
| WHEREAS, For every dollar invested in contraception, three
dollars and seventy-four cents is saved in Medicaid expenditures
for pregnancy-related care according to the Guttmacher Policy
Review; and |
| WHEREAS, The cost of prescription birth control is a major
factor in consistent use of prescription birth control. Copayments
for birth control pills typically range between fifteen dollars
and fifty dollars per month, and for other methods, such as
intrauterine devices, copayments and other out-of-pocket expenses
can reach into the hundreds of dollars; and |
| WHEREAS, Based on research conducted by Hart Research
Associates and commissioned by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund
in 2010, more than one-third (thirty-four per cent) of American
women have struggled with the cost of prescription birth control
at some point in their lives. The numbers are even more dramatic
among younger women (ages eighteen to thirty-four), with more than
half (fifty-five per cent) mentioning a time when they have
struggled with the cost of prescription birth control; and |
| WHEREAS, Premier health care providers and medical
associations support improved access to contraception, including
the American Medical Association, the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family
Physicians, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the American
Public Health Association, and the March of Dimes; now therefore
be it |
| RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 129th General Assembly
of the State of Ohio, in adopting this resolution, strongly urge
the United States Department of Health and Human Services to
include all federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved
prescription contraceptive drugs and devices in the list of
women's preventive health care services that the Department
defines as services that must be covered by new health insurance
plans and are exempt from cost-sharing requirements, as provided
under Section 2713 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act; and be it further |
| RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit duly
authenticated copies of this resolution to the Secretary of the
United States Department of Health and Human Services and the
members of the Ohio Congressional Delegation. |
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