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news:
Women plan ahead
By Jamie Rogers
On-line Summer Forty-Niner
A small, stuffy
reception room and a 2 1/2 hour wait are what greeted hundreds
of women who visited the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Lakewood
last year. More than four million women visit Planned Parenthood
clinics each year and 84 percent were provided with prescription
contraceptives on a sliding pay scale, often free.
Fifty-four percent
of the clinic's clientele are women between the ages of 20
and 29. Many are students. Some have insurance but the policies
do not cover the prescription contraceptives they use.
A recent decision
in a Seattle federal court may help to lighten a small portion
of the burden non-profit organizations like Planned Parenthood
carry. Nearly one year ago, Planned Parenthood sued the Seattle-based
Bartell Drug Co. on behalf of Jennifer Erickson, a Bartell
employee. Erickson complained the company discriminated against
women by specifically excluding prescription contraceptives
from its plan.
In a summary judgment
written earlier this month, United States District Judge Robert
S. Lasnik ruled unequivocally in favor of Erickson.
"The court
finds that Bartell's prescription drug plan discriminates
against Bartell's female employees by providing less complete
coverage than that offered to male employees. Although the
plan covers almost all prescription drugs and devices used
by men, the exclusion of prescription contraceptives creates
a gaping hole in the coverage offered to female employees,
leaving a fundamental and immediate healthcare need uncovered,"
Lasnik wrote in his judgment.
The federal decision
may have lasting import throughout the country.
"The (Seattle)
decision may be a landmark one," said Renee Twigg, director
of Student Health Services at Cal State Long Beach. "If
women have insurance, why shouldn't family planning be covered?
Especially when something like Viagra is."
When male-only
prescription drugs such as Viagra began receiving insurance
coverage in 1995, questions about the lack of female-only
prescription drugs arose. Since 1998, thirteen states, including
California, have passed laws requiring private insurers to
cover contraceptives.
The Women's Contraceptive
Equity Act, passed in January 1998, stated every group health
plan that provides coverage for outpatient prescription drug
benefits must provide a variety of Food and Drug Administration
approved prescription contraceptives.
"(The law)
breaks down when out-of-state employers are not required to
provide Californian employees with this coverage," said
Sue Dunlap, vice-president of public policy for Planned Parenthood
Affiliates of California. "This (Seattle) decision, while
it only pertains to Bartell, does set precedent for further
cases in other states that do not require employers to cover
contraceptives."
On April 23, 2001
Martina Alexander, a flight attendant from Riverside, filed
a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
in Los Angeles against American Airlines. Alexander, who worked
for American Airlines for 14 years, filed the suit after she
discovered the company does not cover prescription contraceptives.
Because American Airlines is based in Fort Worth, Texas, the
corporation is not bound to the California law.
The EEOC is expected
to make a decision regarding the validity of the complaint
some time next month. If they side with Alexander, she will
be given permission to file a discrimination lawsuit in federal
court.
Alexander's case
may provide further precedent on a federal level, which women's
groups hope will lead to federal legislation. A federal law
similar to the California law would require all U.S. employers
who offer insurance packages, no matter their state of origin,
to provide coverage of prescription contraceptives.
Forty-nine percent
of pregnancies that occur in the United States are unintended,
according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. The survey
states that many women are reluctant to use birth control
because they cannot afford it. This may be especially true
for college-age women if they believe the only option is to
pay private gynecologists who charge approximately $125 per
visit, according to Twigg, CSULB Health Services director.
"If (women)
do not know there are other options out there, they may think
'oh my gosh I can't afford this,'" she said.
Health Services
provides CSULB students doctor's visits free of charge. Students
are charged a nominal fee for lab tests and a variety of prescription
contraceptives for slightly more than the bulk wholesale cost.
"At Health
Services, Pap smears cost around $11.50 and Chlamydia tests...
are only about $9.50. Birth control pills are only $3.00 a
month," Twigg said.
The price of family
planning is considerably less than that of prenatal care.
The average annual health care cost for unintended pregnancies
is $3,225. The Health Insurance Association of America found
in 1998 the average added expense of including prescription
contraceptives in health care packages is approximate approximately
$16.20 a year.
After the Seattle
decision, business groups argued that forcing employers who
provide insurance to add the cost of prescription contraceptives
to their packages would cause employers to drop their insurance
packages completely. Representative from the United Sates
Chamber of Commerce agreed with this prediction. The Long
Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has not yet taken an official
position, according to Judy Nelson, staff liaison for the
economic development committee of the chamber.
"It is kind
of ridiculous because (family planning) is cheap," said
Harold Hunter, professor and director of the health care administration
program at CSULB. "The price of oral contraceptives or
IUDs or even tubal litigation is really nothing. But of course
that treads on more political categories because the Catholic
Church is against it. This is not a question of being unaffordable...
it is a political issue with people beholden to the religious
right."
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