Private Health Insurance: Federal and State Oversight of Contraceptive Coverage Requirements

A GAO report finds that while 82% of women of reproductive age used contraception in the past year and private plans are generally required to cover it at no cost, federal investigations since 2020 have repeatedly found noncompliance. Violations include plans failing to provide contraceptives free of charge and requiring women to try alternative methods before covering their preferred option.

Oversight is split among the Department of Labor, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and individual states, each with its own slice of jurisdiction and its own gaps. The report catalogs who is responsible for what without resolving why noncompliance has persisted across six years of documented violations.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.