Press Releases

Yesterday, Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA), and Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) submitted comments to the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor (DOL), and the Treasury in support of the proposed rules to ensure access to no-cost coverage for contraceptive services under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

“With access to reproductive health care under increasing attack following the Supreme Court’s devastating decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it is more important than ever that the Departments take aggressive action to ensure that everyone has access to contraception and reproductive health care,” the Members wrote.

Under the ACA, private health insurance plans are required to cover preventive care, such as contraceptive services, and other lifesaving services. This requirement has helped more than 16 million enrollees in coverage through the ACA exchanges as well as the vast majority of the approximately 159 million Americans who have coverage through their job.

“Congress enacted this requirement with the goal of eliminating cost barriers and ensuring that individuals have seamless access to vital preventive health services, including contraception. This is critically important, as more than 90 percent of women have used a form of contraception during their lifetime, and out-of-pocket expenses can be financially burdensome without coverage. These costs present a substantial barrier to care, particularly for lower-income individuals and marginalized communities that continue to face inequities in access to reproductive health services,” the Members wrote.

In 2018, the Trump Administration finalized rules to allow employers and universities to deny contraceptive coverage by expanding religious exemptions and establishing a new moral exemption. The Biden-Harris administration’s proposal fully rescinds the moral exemption and provides a new pathway to access no-cost contraceptive care for individuals affected by a religious exemption.

“We are pleased that the Proposed Rules would fully rescind the moral exemption in its entirety and strongly support the Departments moving forward to finalize this proposal without change,” the Members wrote. “Although we remain concerned that the continued existence of broad religious exemptions undermines access to health care, we believe that the individual contraceptive agreement (ICA) proposed by the Departments is an important commitment to improved access for consumers.”

The preventive care coverage requirement under the ACA continues to be under threat from continued Republican attacks. Last week, a conservative District Court judge in Texas—who struck down the entire ACA in 2018 before it was upheld by the Supreme Court—weakened this protection by ruling to restrict the forms of preventive care that must be covered.

Read the full letter here.

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