Here’s How to Bill the President for Your Birth Control
One of the biggest issues women in this country have faced this year has been the rollback of birth control coverage. The rollback, along with the recent announcement that employers don’t have to cover contraception if they object morally, has meant that up to 55 million women could lose (or have lost) their contraceptive coverage and be forced back into a copay, potentially costing over $1,000 per year, per person.
Keep Birth Control Copay Free is hoping to show the administration how much this rollback will cost women across the country by creating and sending invoices as public comments in the administration’s proposed new rules area of the Department of Health and Human Services website.
Amy Runyon-Harms, the coordinator for Keep Birth Control Copay Free, hopes that the campaign sheds new light on the financial burden of contraception on women. This extra medical expense, often called a “woman tax,” can cost thousands of dollars a year, depending on your preferred birth control method. And in the campaign’s corresponding video, many women agree that if the president were able to get pregnant, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation today.
“Donald Trump says he respects women more than anyone,” Denise, an entrepreneur says in the KBCCF ad. “But he’s in the position now to take away something from women now that they need.” Just two years ago, when the ACA first covered contraception, women across the country saved a staggering $1.4 billion dollars.
Runyon-Harms told Bustle, “Given the sheer number of women and families that would suffer real economic and potentially life-changing consequences by putting birth control out of their reach, we wanted to make sure Americans knew what was at stake.”
With 99 percent of women using some form of birth control in their lives, and research showing that over 30 percent of women’s wage increases since the 1960s are directly related to access to oral contraception, this should be a national issue, not just a “women’s” one.
In order to send the administration your invoice, simply log into the KBCCF website, click on “send President Trump your invoice” and find your preferred method of birth control on the drop-down list. The website will calculate what your copay is and then create a mock invoice to post as a public comment on the Health and Human Services Website.
After all, when dealing with a business person, it’s best to bring receipts.
Have new rules affected your contraception choices? Tell us @BritandCo!
(Photo via Getty; Illustration by Marisa Kumtong / Brit+Co)
