LANSING – Two senators want to require health insurers in Michigan to provide women with prescription coverage for contraception. 

Their bills would require health care providers and insurers, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to cover prescriptions for contraceptives approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

The Senate Fiscal Agency said that a slight increase in direct costs is possible if the proposal from Sens. Martha Scott, D-Highland Park, and Beverly Hammerstrom, R-Temperance, becomes law.  State employees and residents covered by Medicaid already have coverage for contraceptives.

“Legislation like ours does more than help women buy their birth control pills or get Depo-Provera injections,” said Scott.  “It takes us one step closer to eliminating the health care disparities.  We are addressing the needs of women that have been ignored for years.”

The Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) opposes the bills, arguing that they would force religious institutions to violate their beliefs against the use of artificial contraception.  It also says the mandate would hinder the Roman Catholic Church’s right to govern and organize itself according to its faith, violating the First Amendment.

By including contraception under health benefit plans and prescription drug benefits, the bills are defining fertility as a disease that demands treatment, said Paul Long, vice president of MCC. 

Contraception doesn’t help to reduce the number of abortions, which is one of the arguments proponents use for the legislation, Long said.

But Planned Parenthood of Michigan supports the bills, citing an increase in abortion rates from 1999 to 2003.

“We believe that women have equal rights and equal benefits,” said Sandra Reese, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Southeast Michigan.  “Women’s health is as important as anyone else’s.”

A program Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed last year to help eliminate unplanned pregnancies also calls for health insurance to provide contraception. 

A federal Medicaid waiver – that Granholm called for – was recently passed.  It provided low-income women without health insurance with family planning services from the state and more access to contraception.

Other aims of the plan include programs that encourage parents – and teach them how –to talk to their children about abstinence and sexual activity.

The bills are pending in the Senate Health Policy Committee.