Giving women access to 12 months of birth control seemed a sure thing after near universal support from the House of Representatives. But the health insurance lobby put heavy pressure on the initiative from Planned Parenthood and wants to limit increased access to birth control from a year to six months, and allow insurers to require as many as seven trips to the pharmacy for a woman in the first year of a prescription. A separate effort, giving pharmacists the ability to prescribe birth control, also has legs in the House if the Senate fails to act.
May 20, 2015