Open AccessContraceptive Equity
Author(s) -
Elizabeth Temkin
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2006.098145
Subject(s) - redress , medical prescription , equity (law) , birth control , medicine , family planning , health insurance , health care , family medicine , business , population , law , political science , environmental health , nursing , research methodology
The Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, introduced in Congress in 1997 and still unpassed, seeks to redress health insurers' failure to pay for birth control as they pay for other prescription drugs, most paradoxically Viagra. In 1936 the International Workers Order (IWO), a fraternal society, became the first insurer to include contraception in its benefits package. A forerunner in the movement for prepaid medical care, the IWO offered its members primary care and contraceptive services for annual flat fees. Founded at a time when the legal status of contraception was in flux, the IWO's Birth Control Center was the only such clinic to operate on an insurance system. Recent state laws and judicial actions have revived the IWO's groundbreaking view of contraception as a basic preventive service deserving of insurance coverage.