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BlogHer Voter Manifesto
Topic: Health Care
Question: What is your position on requiring all major private, Medicaid, or federal health insurance plans cover birth control?
Read all 12 questions
Some questions won't wait.
As I've reported recently, BlogHer continues to invite presidential candidates to respond to a request by women in this community to answer 12 policy questions we developed in a voter manifesto. Thus far, no candidate has accepted. We'll keep trying.
While our invitation to the candidates remains open, our questions are too important to wait. BlogHer's political team thinks it's time to get answers to our questions whether or not the candidates will accept our invitation. Think of it as a watchdog project, where the majority of voters (women) from all political persuasions (you know you are) work together at a nonpartisan site (BlogHer) to report back how -- and whether -- the candidates are earning our votes by addressing the issues. Together, we can figure out what they're saying on the campaign trail every day.
Let's do this right: Quote the candidates -- from every media source you can find -- in answer to the question above. Key to this process are:
1. Facts: This is about what the candidates have said or owned as their opinion. If you want to add your opinion, please label it separately (see #4 below)
2. Sources: Where did you find your facts? Please provide a link and/or a citation if you read or heard it and cannot find it online. Let's do this for every fact you identify
3. Context: If you think it matters, e.g., if you post a random quote from a videolink that was uttered by a candidate outside an abortion rally, that matters. If you don't know the context, that matters too!
4. Opinion: If you want to voice an opinion, what do you think of the candidate's answers?
5. Disclosure: Who are you? If you work on a campaign, are a candidate yourself or are a voter, say so! It'll only add to your credibility.
6. Factchecking: Let's try to check each others' facts.
Let's dig in -- I'll take the first question. Here's what I've found for these presidential candidates, in alphabetical order, first by party and second by last name:
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Democrat
Senator, New York state
Site: www.hillaryclinton.comBlogHer Voter Manifesto question: What is your position on requiring all major private, Medicaid, or federal health insurance plans cover birth control?
Answers by Candidate Clinton:
Private health insurance coverage:
"Ensuring that private health plans offer the same level of coverage for contraception as they do for other prescription drugs and services. Massive shifts have occurred in the number of women with access to contraception through their health insurance over the past 15 years. In 1993, according to testimony by the Executive Director of the Women’s Research and Education Institute, women typically spent 68% more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, a difference that was largely accounted for through reproductive health services. Today, nearly nine in ten employer-provided health insurance plans cover the full range of prescription contraceptives [AGI, 2004]. Still only half of all women of live in states that require contraceptive coverage of employers, and millions of women who don’t receive health insurance through their employers aren’t reached by these state laws [AGI, 2004]. As president, Hillary would work to enact the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, which would require health insurance plans to cover contraception to the same degree that they cover other forms of prescription drugs." Source
Public and assistance program coverage:
"Increasing access to family planning services. Hillary will expand the national family planning program (Title X) and extend Medicaid coverage for family planning services to women who are eligible for pregnancy-related care. Each year, Title X provides 4.8 million people, mostly poor and uninsured, with family planning services that help them plan their pregnancies and improve their health. Clinics that use Title X funds are present in close to three-quarters of counties in the U.S. Over the last two decades, Title X services are estimated to have prevented 20 million unintended pregnancies and nine million abortions, and helped to prevent 5.5 million adolescent pregnancies [Planned Parenthood]. President Bush has proposed no increases in Title X since taking office. As a result, health care providers that rely on Title X funds have significantly lost purchasing power and are struggling to afford the latest technology in diagnostic and contraceptive services. According to the Guttmacher Institute,
