All private insurance plans in New York and California are now required to cover abortion if they offer maternity care coverage — without a copayment or a deductible.
The laws in each state went into effect on New Year’s Day.
New York had previously existing laws that required cost-sharing for medically necessary abortions.
However, in March, Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul signed the state’s health and mental hygiene budget, which changed it so that insurers must now cover all abortions without cost sharing.
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New York was also already providing public funding for abortion.
In California, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed the very similar S.B. 245, the Abortion Accessibility Act, into law in March.
The new state law says that insurance plans cannot impose cost-sharing requirements on abortions. This includes deductibles, coinsurance, or copayments.
“This bill would prohibit a health care service plan or an individual or group policy or certificate of health insurance or student blanket disability insurance that is issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2023, from imposing a deductible, coinsurance, copayment, or any other cost-sharing requirement on coverage for all abortion and abortion-related services, as specified,” the bill states.
“Because a violation of the bill by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program,” the bill continued.
California also passed Proposition 1, which guarantees a person’s “fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.”