{"id":31643,"date":"2016-02-25T09:02:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T17:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/senate-panel-hears-bill-aimed-at-easing-birth-control-access\/"},"modified":"2016-02-25T09:02:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T17:02:40","slug":"senate-panel-hears-bill-aimed-at-easing-birth-control-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/senate-panel-hears-bill-aimed-at-easing-birth-control-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate panel hears bill aimed at easing birth control access"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014<\/strong> Representatives from Planned Parenthood, a union of current and former sex workers, small business owners and others testified Wednesday on a bill that would require insurance companies to pay claims for women in Alaska to get up to one year\u2019s worth of contraception at a time.<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s sponsor, Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, told the Senate Health and Social Services Committee she wanted to make it more convenient for women to get contraceptives, particularly in rural areas. She said it could help reduce unintended pregnancies.<\/p>\n

During the bill\u2019s first hearing, Gardner and her aide Katie Bruggeman said certain provisions in the bill would be taken out \u2014 including one that would have required insurance companies to pay for over-the-counter contraceptives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that it needs some changes, so we\u2019re happy to be guided by the wishes of this committee,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

Three committee members \u2014 Republican Sens. Bert Stedman and Bill Stoltze and Democratic Sen. Johnny Ellis \u2014 heard testimony from women who said they supported easier access to contraception.<\/p>\n

Several said it was onerous, sometimes impossible, to visit doctors every one to three months to refill prescriptions for birth control.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Figus, of Juneau, said she captains a commercial fishing vessel during the summer and considers the bill a \u201cno-brainer\u201d as many of the state\u2019s residents spend significant portions of the year in remote locations where they have inconsistent access health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work seven days a week and spend five of these seven days at sea,\u201d Figus said. \u201cIn the past, I\u2019ve had to cancel doctor appointment repeatedly or delay departures in order to get crucial care for myself and my crew. While some of these visits may be unavoidable, having to alter schedules for something as simple as a preapproved prescription pickup is both a frustrating an unnecessary expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Tamagni Sr., a representative of Alaska\u2019s chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, spoke against the bill. He said it would exempt larger self-insured entities like the state, universities and Alaska Native corporations while requiring small businesses to shoulder the burden of paying for more contraceptives.<\/p>\n

In its written comments on the bill, the federation said that the mandate would require specific drug coverage that could prevent employers from providing affordable insurance programs tailored to a specific workforce and raise costs.<\/p>\n

Community United for Safety and Protection representative Maxine Doogan said her organization, which represents Alaska\u2019s current and former sex workers, sex trafficking victims and allies, believed that expanding access to women\u2019s health care is in the best interests of the state and could save the state money by reducing unintended pregnancies.<\/p>\n

A study from the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, which researches sexual and reproductive health found that in Alaska in 2010, more than 60 percent of the unplanned births in Alaska, or about 3,000 of them, were publicly funded. The state and federal government spent more than $113 million on those pregnancies, according to the report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 Representatives from Planned Parenthood, a union of current and former sex workers, small business<\/a> owners and others testified Wednesday on a bill that would require insurance companies to pay claims for women in Alaska to get up to one year\u2019s worth of contraception at a time. The bill\u2019s sponsor, Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31643"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}