# The Affordability is Access Act of 2023

This bill requires health insurance plans to cover over-the-counter birth control methods without charging you anything out of pocket. Right now, many insurance plans cover prescription birth control for free, but over-the-counter options like condoms, spermicide, and emergency contraception pills often aren't covered or require you to pay for them yourself. This bill would change that by making sure any contraceptive that the FDA has approved for sale without a prescription gets covered by your insurance plan at no cost to you.

The bill also encourages pharmaceutical companies to apply to the FDA to make birth control pills available over-the-counter, rather than requiring a prescription. Currently, you need to see a doctor and get a prescription to buy birth control pills, which creates an extra barrier for people who have trouble accessing healthcare appointments or can't afford a doctor's visit. The bill expresses Congress's view that once the FDA approves an over-the-counter birth control pill, insurance should cover it without requiring a prescription. This addresses a real problem: about one in five women aren't using their preferred birth control method, and many say cost is the reason why.

The bill also prevents retailers that sell over-the-counter contraception from blocking your access to these products or refusing to sell them to you. However, retailers can still refuse to sell you contraception if you can't pay for it directly or through insurance. The bill doesn't change how the FDA reviews and approves medications—it just clarifies that once something is approved for over-the-counter use, insurance companies must cover it as part of their existing requirement to provide contraceptive coverage.