Legislators this week heard legislation that seeks to make life a bit easier for women using prescription contraceptives.
House Bill 17 by Fairbanks Democratic Rep. Ashley Carrick would require insurance and Medicaid coverage of 12-month supplies of contraceptives. Currently, most women must visit the pharmacy every month or every three months to refill contraceptive prescriptions.
While the current situation is a headache for everyone, Carrick told the House Health and Social Services Committee on Tuesday that it’s particularly challenging for women living in rural Alaska or working jobs in remote areas of the state.
“Alaskans often face numerous challenges when they’re trying to access prescription contraceptives. Women especially in rural areas often cannot take multiple trips a year to the pharmacy,” she said. “Additionally, many women work in careers that take them away from a regular provider, such as working on the North Slope, working in the field doing research over an entire field season, on fishing vessels, in mining industry or other professions that make consistent contraceptive access a challenge. A one-year supply can assist many women in balancing personal health with their work and professional careers.”
She also noted that research shows access to having 12-month supplies of contraceptives results in lower numbers of unplanned pregnancies as well as lower rates of abortion. She also noted that it’s particularly important in helping victims of domestic violence where abusers might control access to contraceptives.
Similar legislation has been proposed in past Legislatures, where it has been found to have no additional cost to the state. The legislation also seeks to steer such coverage toward generics in almost all cases as an additional means of controlling costs.
The legislation only deals with contraceptives and emergency contraceptives, not abortifacients like the abortion pill, mifepristone, that’s targeted by a coalition of 23 GOP-led states—including Alaska—seeking to pull the drug from the market entirely.
This being a committee chaired mostly by Republican men, it was about what you’d expect with a question that conflated emergency contraceptives with abortifacients (they’re not the same thing), and several questions that essentially boiled down to “If 12-month coverage for contraceptives is so good, then why don’t we do it for everything?”
“There is a substantial population of Alaskan women who are asking for this legislation, and so this bill could potentially could be more comprehensive and include other types of medications but this is in direct response and proportion to the amount of previous testimony in previous legislatures, individuals in rural Alaska who have asked for this, women who work in professions outside of an urban area,” she said. “That’s why this bill has been brought forward.”
Division of Insurance Director Lori Wing-Heier also chimed in that point, noting that frequently the shorter-term prescriptions have a therapeutic purpose like doctors wanting to check in on blood work and other levels. She said that’s not really the case with contraceptives, but a doctor could give a shorter prescription if it was a concern.
The House Health and Social Services Committee is scheduled to hear public testimony on the bill at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18.
Matt Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter: @mattbuxton.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.