Low-Income Women's Access to Family Planning
California provides increased access to reproductive-health-care services through a State Plan Amendment (SPA) to its Medicaid program. The SPA creates a limited-eligibility group, allowing individuals who do not otherwise qualify for the Medicaid program to obtain family-planning services. The SPA allows the state to cover family-planning services for women and men with family incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level who are not currently enrolled in Medicaid and do not have any other health insurance. Additionally, enrollees must be (1) U.S. citizens or persons who meet Medicaid citizenship requirements and (2) California residents.
Beneficiaries of family-planning coverage available through the SPA are not required to pay premiums or co-payments for covered services. Covered services include: all FDA-approved birth-control methods, devices and supplies; a comprehensive reproductive-health history, physical examination, and pap smear; emergency services directly related to the contraceptive method and follow-up; pregnancy testing and counseling; prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections; HIV testing and counseling; limited diagnostic services for fertility management; male and female sterilization; reproductive-health education and counseling.
NARAL Pro-Choice America Survey of State Medicaid Offices
