After Jersey Garcia welcomed her first baby earlier this year in a planned pregnancy, she was shocked to learn that, despite having health insurance through her employer, she couldn't afford to resume her birth control. The IUD had been her reliable form of birth control for years, but she was told she must pay $800 in fees beyond what her health
insurance covers. Switching to the birth control pill was also not affordable; the pill will cost her up to $480 per year in insurance co-payments.
Both options are out of reach as she takes on the cost of a newborn. Jersey is reluctantly weighing one final option to access a reliable form of birth control: reveal private information on this deeply personal subject to a co-worker who is charged with submitting appeals to the insurance company.
As it stands, health care reform does nothing to minimize or eliminate these costly co-payments for birth control for working women. Women spend on average 30 years over their lifetime trying not to get pregnant. For women like Jersey, that could mean more than $15,000 in co-pays and related fees. READ FULL STORY
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