Insurance is one of the major barriers to abortion care in the U.S. That’s intentional

beSpacific 2022-05-18

Fast Company: “…About half of Americans—more than 158 million people—are insured through an employer, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And while two studies have found that a majority of Americans with employer-based insurance do have coverage for abortion, research indicates that only about 4 in 10 privately insured patients actually use that insurance to pay for the abortion procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice reproductive-health research organization. (Another study found that as many as 69% of patients paid out of pocket, including those with private insurance.) This can be for a variety of reasons: People may be unsure what their plan covers, they may have high deductibles, their plan may not cover their particular abortion needs, or the clinic may not accept insurance. The median cost for a first-trimester procedural abortion out of pocket from 2017 to 2020 was $575, while a second-trimester abortion was $895, according to a recent University of California San Francisco (UCSF) study of abortion and insurance. Later-stage second- and third-trimester abortions can top $10,000. Meanwhile, one-quarter of Americans aren’t able to pay for a $400 emergency expense solely with the money in their bank accounts…”