IN THE CROSSHAIRS - Trump Is One Step Away From Dumping Obamacare's Copay-Free Birth Control
Senate Obamacare proponents are urging Mick Mulvaney to stop chipping away at birth control access after the OMB posted a new rule governing ‘certain preventive services.’
ERIN GLORIA RYAN
05.26.17 6:00 AM ET
Trumpland is a single step away from enacting a rule that could affect millions of women’s access to health care, in one fell swoop changing the Obamacare mandate that required insurance give women to access to copay-free birth control.
We don’t know exactly how this rule will affect women, how many it will affect, because, though it’s just one set of approvals away from being officially on the books, it’s been kept under wraps from the public. But given the Trump administration’s track record of hostility toward government-sanctioned contraception, women’s health advocates are bracing for the worst.
On Wednesday, the Office of Management quietly posted this seemingly innocuous item to its website. It’s a notice that a new rule governing “certain preventive services under the Affordable Care Act” is one layer of approval away from being enacted. Some say the contraceptive mandate is likely in its crosshairs.
The Affordable Care Act categorizes contraception as “preventive services” that insurance companies must provide to patients at no cost, and the Trump administration has made no secret that this provision has had a target on it from Day 1. Wednesday’s notice indicates that the rule (again, not being shared with the public) is an “interim final rule,” which in layman’s terms means the rule has passed through every step of the approval process and only needs to be rubber-stamped by the OMB. Once that happens, it will be posted to the federal register and become effective immediately.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/26/trump-is-one-step-away-from-dumping-obamacares-copay-free-birth-control
