A.9957 (Cahill)

STAFF CONTACT :

Director of Government Affairs
518.694.4462

BILL

A.9957 (Cahill)

SUBJECT

New Contraceptive Mandates

DATE

Oppose

The Business Council opposes A.9957 (Cahill) which would create ever more mandates on private health insurance to cover all federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved contraceptive drugs, devices, products, sterilization procedures, contraceptive education and counseling, and related follow up services while prohibiting any co-payment for the same. This bill, which goes far beyond the requirements of the ACA would undoubtedly result in further increases in the cost health insurance in New York, a cost borne in large part by employers.

Federal guidelines require that all health plans cover at least one form of contraception in each of the eighteen contraceptive methods recognized by the FDA without cost-sharing. This bill mandates far greater requirements than those mandated by the ACA, including the inclusion of emergency contraception when prescribed by doctor or pharmacist, the dispensing of a twelve month supply of contraceptive supplies at one time, and the voluntary sterilization procedures for men and women.

This proposal is in contrast with the decisions of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. This means that this bill amounts to a state-imposed insurance mandate, in excess of those required in the federal essential benefits menu, and must be paid for by state revenues – not federal money or premium dollars. The cost for employer-sponsored health coverage continues to rise and policy makers, instead of having serious conversations about how to "bend the cost curve" for the health care system, continue to enact measures that add costs across the board for which there is no identified revenue source to pay. Now is not the time to impose new costly coverage mandates on New York.

For these reasons, The Business Council respectfully opposes adoption of A.9957 (Cahill).