Support Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage

To:  Congress

A petition to urge consideration and passage of the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act of 2001 (S. 104 & H.R. 1111)

We, the undersigned, urge you to support the timely enactment of the above-mentioned bills. Currently, private insurance companies are able to selectively allow or disallow coverage for particular prescription drugs. Consequently, many companies have opted to exclude contraceptives from their coverage plans. Unfortunately, women are disproportionately impacted by the lack of contraceptive coverage. Moreover, a basic equality issue arises when companies that do not cover female-specific contraceptives do cover male-specific prescriptions.

While private companies should be at liberty to determine, without government interference, the substance of their coverage, they should not be free to discriminate against half of the population in the process. The aforementioned legislation does not seek to mandate universal contraceptive coverage, but simply to ensure parity in the coverage scheme individual companies currently elect to offer. Furthermore, preliminary studies indicate that enactment of this legislation would not levy a significant burden for employers (to whom the increased costs would be passed), perhaps less than two dollars per month, per employee.

In the interest of basic fairness, please join the supporters of these bills to guarantee the expeditious passing of this bipartisan appeal for equality.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Support Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Petition to Congress was created by Population, Birth Control and Women members and written by Mindy Moore.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no express or implied endorsement of this petition by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. The petition scripts are created by Mike Wheeler at Artifice, Inc.  For Technical Support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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