Low-Income Women's Access to Family Planning

Pennsylvania 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 female Pennsylvania residents between the ages of 18 and 44 with incomes at or below 185% of the federal poverty level who are not otherwise eligible for state health care programs and who have no other family planning insurance coverage.

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

The waiver will expire on June 1, 2012.

Pa. Family Planning Demonstration Fact Sheet, Ctrs. for Medicare and Medicaid Servs., May 17, 2007 at http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:l076OqY9xQ8J:www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaidstwaivprogdemopgi/mwdl/itemdetail.asp%3FfilterType%3Dnone%26filterByDID%3D0%26sortByDID%3D2%26sortOrder%3Ddescending%26itemID%3DCMS1199308%26intNumPerPage%3D10+family+planning+waiver+pennsylvania&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us (last visited Nov. 17, 2008);  NARAL Pro-Choice America Survey of State Medicaid Offices