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American Medical Student Association
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Executive Exemptions: AMSA Opposes President’s Affronts to Contraception, Health Care Coverage, and Health Equity
STERLING, Virginia, October 12, 2017 – In just six days, the current administration has pushed for regulatory changes that could have devastating consequences for health care coverage and delivery.
On Friday, October 6, President Trump rolled back ACA protections, allowing more businesses to claim religious or moral exemptions from covering birth control in employee health plans. This decision ignores extensive medical evidence demonstrating the broad health benefits of contraception. An employer refusing to cover insulin or a pacemaker on religious or moral grounds would be widely unacceptable, yet the administration is granting such discretion over contraception, which has numerous medical applications. Employers define job roles and salaries, not the necessity or scope of an employee’s health care.
Furthermore, today the president issued another executive order directing federal agencies to expand association health plans and short-term insurance. While implementation details remain uncertain, the impact on the individual insurance market could be severe. These association plans and short-term policies could offer fewer benefits than ACA-mandated essential health plans, potentially drawing younger, healthier people into cheaper, limited-coverage options. This shift would leave older, sicker individuals in ACA marketplaces facing higher premiums and deductibles, further destabilizing the system through increased segmentation.
Segmentation remains a major issue under the current health care framework. AMSA supports a publicly and progressively financed, privately delivered federal single-payer system that ensures high-quality, affordable health care for all. In the absence of a unified single-payer system, AMSA opposes deregulation allowing the interstate sale of private health insurance and supports reforms that expand comprehensive coverage and access for all individuals in the United States. We further support contraceptive equity, ensuring insurance coverage for contraceptive devices and medications, including emergency contraception, at the same rate as other covered prescriptions. This applies to both private and public insurance to promote fair access and lower costs. We also support federal guidelines requiring all insurance plans to cover birth control without copays as part of preventive health care and oppose any exemptions for religiously affiliated plans.
For these reasons, we reject the administration’s executive orders and regulatory rollbacks, as they undermine evidence-based medicine and threaten progress toward equitable, comprehensive, and affordable health care for all.
By: Daniel H. Gouger, MD, AMSA Education and Advocacy Fellow
About the American Medical Student Association:
AMSA is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online.
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