The council's report came at the request of the General Assembly, which in the last session considered three different bills to mandate coverage of contraceptives. Maryland in 1998 became the first state to require full contraceptive coverage by private insurers, and a dozen states have since followed suit. The General Assembly recessed this year without passing the legislation, after the Health Care Cost Containment Council's report said there wasn't enough evidence to recommend action on the bills. The council's report noted several different estimates of the cost implications of expanding the benefit. Legislative proposals advanced in Pennsylvania and elsewhere recently cover half the costs of all five nonpermanent contraceptive methods.
Cost estimates vary Estimates generated by opponents of mandated coverage vary greatly.
In its report to the council, the insurance federation cited a study reporting that contraceptives can account for 6 percent of costs under a prescription drug benefit. Since drug costs are currently about 15 percent of the total health care bill, contraceptives would account for about 1 percent of all health care costs, according to the council's report. Cliff Shannon, executive director of SMC Business Council, which helps its 8,000 member companies purchase health benefits at group rates, said cost estimates offered by both sides in the argument match his expectation that broad coverage of contraceptives would add less than 1 percent to overall costs. Shannon said he wasn't greatly concerned by the added cost. In the age of Viagra, the wonder drug to treat impotence, health plans have a hard time arguing they should cover the erectile dysfunction drug but not contraceptives, he said.