Currently, 14 states have enacted full bans on abortion, while another six states have partial bans following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. When that happened, many insurers stepped up to work with employers and explain their benefits, as well as help with travel assistance for abortion services, said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
“It was a great first step, [and] they should be congratulated on that because it really allowed companies to move quickly to really highlight how to protect their workforce,” McGill Johnson said in an interview with MedCity News at the AHIP 2023 conference in Portland.
But there’s more payers can do, such as include reproductive health benefits before deductibles in their health plans, and offer access to the full spectrum of reproductive services, McGill Johnson said.
It’s also important that they make sure the communities their members are in are safe and healthy. Insurers can use their influence to help lawmakers understand the impact of their actions, and hold “states accountable for the kind of public health information that they are offering so that they can make decisions” on supporting reproductive health benefits, she added.
During a panel discussion at the conference, McGill Johnson also urged more states to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months, and questioned whether over-the-counter birth control bills (which could soon be available) will be covered by insurance.
“We’re so close to over-the-counter birth control,” she stated. “That in itself will expand access to care, but will it be covered by insurance? Just because it’s available in a different way doesn’t necessarily mean it’s expanding access.”
But it’s not just up to insurers to create change — it needs to come from multiple stakeholders, McGill Johnson stressed.
“Universities are being affected, provider communities are being affected in these states, the workforce is being affected,” she told MedCity News. “How do we bring them into that? Men are being affected, how do we bring them into conversations and give them the confidence to demonstrate their opinion on the process? Because we know that will actually generate other action.”
Abortion also needs to be normalized, McGill Johnson added. One in four women in the U.S. will have an abortion by the age of 45, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“It’s a fairly normal medical common experience that people have to navigate and manage … What that number does is it kind of demonstrates the wide range of reasons [people seek abortions] and the very reason why we should not be involved in making decisions on behalf of people because they understand their circumstances personally.”
While people have differing views when it comes to reproductive health, providing access to these kinds of healthcare benefits is vital considering 60% of college students are female and will be looking for places to build a future, McGill Johnson said. Further, 61% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
“Not everyone has the same viewpoint on access to abortion,” she said on the panel. “But we do know that the majority of people in this country actually do believe that decision should be left with the person making the decision, not politicians.”
Photo: Fokusiert, Getty Images
