Low-Income Women's Access to Family Planning

Arkansas provides increased access to reproductive health care services through a Section 1115 family planning waiver.  The waiver allows the state to cover family planning services for all women of childbearing age with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, who are not otherwise eligible for state and federal health care programs.  

Beneficiaries of family planning coverage available through the waiver are not required to pay premiums or co-payments for covered services.  Covered services include: contraceptive education and counseling; contraceptives (includes FDA-approved over-the-counter drugs, injectables, and implants); voluntary sterilization; office visits, examinations in conjunction with a family planning encounter; and laboratory and radiology procedures associated with a family planning encounter.

The waiver will expire on Jan. 31, 2009.

Ark. Family Planning Demonstration Fact Sheet, Ctrs. for Medicare and Medicaid Servs., May 30, 2006 at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidStWaivProgDemoPGI/MWDL/itemdetail.asp?filterType=none&filterByDID=-99&sortByDID=2&sortOrder=ascending&itemID=CMS028310&intNumPerPage=2000 (last visited Dec. 5, 2008);
NARAL Pro-Choice America Survey of State Medicaid Offices