Last week, President Donald Trump loosened an Affordable Care Act requirement that required insurance plans to offer no-cost contraception for women, allowing more employers to opt out for moral or religious reasons. But most Oregon women won't be impacted by the move, the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services reported Tuesday.
"After reviewing the new regulation," Jake Sunderland, spokesperson for the agency said over email, "most Oregonians should continue to have guaranteed access to no-cost contraceptive coverage."
That's because in August, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed House Bill 3391 into law. The bill, also called the Reproductive Health Equity Act, requires, among other things, all insurance plans to cover no-cost birth control beginning Jan. 1, 2019.
There is one group of women who might be vulnerable to the change in the law: Those covered by self-funded Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA plans. Under ERISA plans, employees' medical care is self-insured by their employer.
Those plans, Sunderland said, "are preempted from state law and only have to comply with federal rules."
Just under 20 percent of Oregon's population is covered under those plans.
HB 3391 doesn't just require insurance providers to offer no-cost birth control. Insurers must cover post-partum care, abortions, and tests for sexually transmitted infections and reproductive system cancers without requiring a copay from patients.
-- Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052
lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker