I've said it before and I am reiterating now: we don't know exactly what Obamacare will look like starting next year, but if you need long-term, effective birth control, get it now. That's reinforced by this reminder from Rewire about one of Donald Trump's leading contestants candidates for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA). He'll be the guy in charge of rolling out whatever changes to the healthcare law are made, as well as weighing in heavily on those changes. Here's what he honestly thinks about the birth control mandate in the law.
“Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one,” Price said, referring to women who cannot afford contraception. “There’s not one. The fact of the matter is, this is a trampling of religious freedom and religious liberty in this country.”
As a member of Congress, Price pushed legislation to repeal and replace the ACA, most notably by introducing the Empowering Patients First Act in 2015.
As the House Budget Committee chairperson, Price played a role in the 2015 budget reconciliation package that would have defunded Planned Parenthood and gutted key provisions of the ACA had it not been vetoed by President Obama.
Price told the Hill Thursday that Republicans planned to use the budget reconciliation bill they passed in 2015 again this year, with only minor changes. When asked if the bill would include the provision defunding Planned Parenthood, Price said the discussions are “still ongoing.”
The part of the law that says your insurance company has to cover your prescription birth control without charge (beyond your office visit co-pay) will almost certainly be gone. If you need birth control and can tolerate something like an IUD or implants, get it now while you can afford it. Two other things: call your representative and senators and tell them to protect your health; and if you can afford it, donate to your local Planned Parenthood to help them provide low-cost health services to other women.
Anyone who doesn’t need birth control but is as pissed off as I am that this key element of women’s health could disappear can do those last two things, too.