An Obvious Conclusion
In short, the scientific evidence and the balance of costs and benefits all point to the same conclusion: As the IOM panel and DHHS work to establish guidelines for women’s preventive care and screenings, they have every reason to incorporate family planning. Such incorporation should include the full range of reversible and permanent contraceptive drugs, devices and procedures; related clinical services necessary to appropriately supply those methods, such as injections and the insertion and removal of an IUD or implant; and the counseling and patient education necessary to help women and men gauge their contraceptive needs and practice contraception most effectively.
Doing so would be consonant with a wide array of precedents for promoting contraception as preventive care (related article, Spring 2010, page 2). These include precedents from federal agencies and programs, including the CDC, the federally qualified health centers program and Medicaid. They include precedents from numerous respected health care provider associations, ranging from the American Medical Association to the American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as from prominent health promotion organizations such as the American Public Health Association, the March of Dimes and the National Governors Association. Such a recommendation would be in line with current insurance industry standards, as the vast majority of private insurance plans today cover a comprehensive array of contraceptive services and supplies. And such a recommendation would be in line with previous recommendations of the IOM itself, including those in its 1995 report, The Best Intentions: Unintended Pregnancy and the Well-Being of Children and Families, which included one of the earliest calls for insurance coverage of contraceptive services and supplies without cost-sharing.