Advisory Panel makes 8 women's health recommendations
Posted: Jul 22, 2011 5:52 AM ISTUpdated: Jul 22, 2011 6:00 AM ISTALSO ON THE WEB
TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) - A federal advisory board says birth control should be free under health care plans.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) says unplanned pregnancies are a factor in rising health care costs.
However, contraceptives are a touchy issue that can pit people against each other.
The IOM made eight recommendations.
The one that seems to be stirring the most controversy involves birth control.
The recommendation is that insured women be able to get their birth control prescriptions fill without a co-payment.
We asked three Tucson women what they thought of the idea.
Theresa Gonsalves says, "I think it would be useful, and especially for people who are not planning a family and are financially strapped."
Briana Utsch opposes the recommendation.
"It's something that they should pay for themselves. They should be responsible for it themselves," she says.
"I just think that's good. I mean it helps people that can't afford it. It helps so they don't end up wanting abortions or anything," says Alisha Hawley.
University of Arizona Professor of Public Health and OB/GYN, Dr. Francisco Garcia, was on the panel that made the recommendations: "That those medications, those procedure, those devices which are currently approved by the FDA should be available to patients for contraception," he says.
The recommendations do not include the so-called abortion pill, RU486.
Dr. Garcia says the advisory panel had a mandate.
"The point of the recommendations was to identify those services for which there was a really robust evidence-based for the likelihood of improving the lives of women," says Dr. Garcia.
He says there are many non-contraceptive benefits to contraception, including decreasing the risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer.
He says there are many women for whom, because of disease or their age, would be prone to complications associated with their pregnancy...complications for themselves and their baby.
"More importantly, I think, there's really good evidence that says that when pregnancies are timed and planned, they have better outcomes for the mom and for the baby," Dr. Garcia says.
Among the groups against the birth control recommendation is the Roman Catholic Church.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement that said, in part, "Pregnancy is not a disease, and fertility is not a pathological condition to be suppressed by any means technically possible."
The advisory panel did make seven other recommendations that have nothing to do with birth control, such as health screenings and domestic violence screening and counseling.
Dr. Garcia says, "I think women will lose if we lose sight of the fact that there's a lot of other things that we commented on."
The federal government is expected to decide by August first whether to implement any, all or none of the recommendations.
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