In Arizona, there was a bill called House Bill 2625. It would require women to prove to their employers that they were using birth control to treat a medical condition, and not to prevent pregnancy. The bill passed the Arizona House of Representatives. The Arizona Senate has rejected this controversial bill.
You have probably heard about House Bill 2625, even if you don’t recognize it by name. This bill was so controversial that it was reported by news agencies and websites, and was widely discussed across the internet. If this bill were passed into law, it would have given employers unprecedented access to the private, personal, health conditions of some of their employees. It would have given employers information that doctors are not permitted to disclose about their patients.
It also would have restricted the ability of women in Arizona to receive certain types of women’s health care. The bill specifically put restrictions upon the circumstances by which a woman could expect her employer-sponsored health insurance to cover the cost of birth control.
Personally, I think that this bill was a “loophole” that would, if passed into law, enable employers to get around the federal requirement about birth control coverage. The bill would have allowed employers to refuse to cover health care in a employer-sponsored health insurance plan that the employer personally had a moral or religious objection to.
House Bill 2625 would have required female employees to prove to their employer that they were using birth control to treat a medical condition, such as endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, or as treatment for something similar. Employers would be allowed to refuse to cover the cost of birth control that was being used to prevent pregnancy, but would still be required to cover it if it was being used for treatment of a medical condition.
The bill was passed by the Arizona House of Representatives. The Arizona Senate rejected this bill. This means that it cannot be made into a law right now. The Senate voted 17 -13 against the bill. A total of nine Democrats and eight Republicans voted against the bill.
One reason why the bill didn’t pass had to do with concerns that by requiring women to give private health information to their employers it could enable those employers to discriminate against them. The employer could discover that a female employee was using birth control to prevent a pregnancy, and use that as the basis for denying her a promotion, or as the reason why the employer chose to fire that employee.
Parts of the bill had been changed to require women to prove to their health insurance company, instead of their employer, that they were using birth control to treat a medical condition, (and not to prevent pregnancy). This led to concerns that insurers would label these women as having a pre-existing condition because she was using birth control. People with pre-existing conditions end up paying more for health insurance, and often have difficulty being approved for health insurance.
Image by Anya1986 on Flickr