A serious question for women!

Some insurance policies may cover it and some may not. It is a point of negotiation. Some companies have prescription drug coverage and others do not. Some impose a higher co-pay on name brand drugs vs generics. Basically, prescription drugs (and OTC for that matter) aren't really a risk pooling scenario. If you want the insurance to cover contraceptives, then expect the premium to go up. Maybe they will have a lower co-pay on cheap condoms vs more expensive pills. Maybe their actuaries have determined there is a higher incidence of problems in women who take the pill and so if you take the pill, you need a higher premium rate. Insurance companies are in the business to make money. They are dealing with risks and probabilities and statistics. If they are lucky, they will make more money and if not, they will lose money. But on average, they aren't making egregious profits. They have future liabilities, and unlike the government, they must keep those liabilities on the books and show reserves to cover them. They also invest some of the premiums they collect to try and make some investment returns to keep premium prices down. That also entails risk. Because when the economy tanks, there's going to be less investment income and premiums are going to have to compensate. So anything is possible, but there will be a cost. Furthermore, just because a company can cover something, doesn't mean the should or will. Some insurance companies like some companies at large have some sense of a "social conscience" and may be motivated to not cover contraception while others may. Just like come company insurance plans may cover vision care or other specialties while others may not.

Turn it around. I don't think insurance is appropriate for routine expenses, whether it is Viagra or birth control. Insurance is supposed to be risk pooling to protect against an unlikely, but financially catastrophic expense (or loss). As for health care that is more predictable and not financially catastrophic, insurance isn't the proper vehicle. You can choose your doctor and pay cash or pre-pay for future services just like you can with a lawyer. For medicines, whether prescription or not, they are generally paid at the time of service. Now if I have dental insurance and it covers a few days of pain meds along with wisdom teeth removal, or I have an organ transplant and must have anti-rejection drugs for the rest of my life, those are part and parcel of the insured problem and should be paid as required. But if I want vitamins or birth control or Viagra or OTC meds it's more like a predictable expense and shouldn't be covered by insurance. I can negotiate a deal, perhaps... a group buy, for example, but it is on me. Now if my employer happens to offer a health care benefit, it is like any other benefit. It is part of my total compensation. When I choose a job nd an employer, I will find that each has different job conditions, compensation packages and workplace amenities and I will choose based on the total package. But if I pick an employer with higher pay and lower benefits, I can't go back later and say I want the same benefits as another employer offers unless I am willing to forgo some salary. And the reason why people should pick their own healthcare is because everybody has different needs and predictable routine care requirements that aren't always what an employer or large group may decide is optimal. I don't need maternity benefits as we are done having kids. My kids don't need geriatric care because they are young. I should be able to find a doctor that suits my needs and budget without having to deal with insurance at all. Healthcare plans for predictable healthcare expenses are like coupon books where you may use some of the coupons and not others. If you use them all, you will get much more than you pay, but if not, you may have wasted your money. Or they can be simply prepaid service like you might get if you buy a new car or computer. Not all dealers offer them and not all such benefits are the same. But ultimately, somebody pays for the benefits. And if they are not a low probability expense, anything that gets added to the menu is going to be paid by you one way or the other by higher premiums or reduced benefits elsewhere. That's why I say there isn't much advantage to having contraceptives paid by your healthcare plan. If they do, they will just raise the cost of the plan to you or whoever is paying for it. What is unfair, is to saddle everybody with paying for something like contraceptives when half of the population don't need them and half of what's left may not want them.