Judge: Contraceptives in Health Plan
Tuesday, June 12, 2001 7:41 p.m. EDT
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SEATTLE (AP) - In a widely watched lawsuit, a drugstore chain was ordered Tuesday to include contraceptives for women in its employee health insurance plan.
U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik ruled in favor of pharmacist Jennifer Erickson in her suit against Bartell Drug Co. in a case that marks the first federal challenge to employers who don't cover birth control.
``Although the plan covers almost all drugs and devices used by men, the exclusion of prescription contraceptives creates a gaping hole in the coverage offered to female employees, leaving a fundamental and immediate health care need uncovered,'' Lasnik wrote.
Erickson, 27, who works for for the Bartell chain, contended that the policy violated the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
``I am extremely pleased and I want to encourage all employers and insurance companies across America to cover contraceptives in their plans,'' Erickson said after the decision was announced
Erickson's lead attorney, Roberta Riley, told Lasnik at a hearing last month that the company's policy singled out women and put them at a disadvantage.
But Bartell lawyer James Dickens claimed that interpretation of the pregnancy law is wrong. Thousands of pages of the Congressional Record show no mention of birth control, he said.
``The state of not being pregnant was not covered by that law,'' he said. Besides, Dickens said, Bartell's plans exclude a broad range of family planning services.
Bartell added birth control to its health insurance for union-covered employees on April 1 and now will ``take prompt action'' to add the benefit for nonunion employees, such as Erickson, said Jean Bartell Barber, the company's chief financial officer.
``It was never our intention to discriminate and we had planned to offer contraceptive coverage well before this judgment,'' she said.
Nationally, women's groups have been trying for years to force employers to cover contraceptives in health insurance.
The debate became particularly charged after the introduction of Viagra, the male impotence pill, which some insurers cover.
In December, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declared that two employers violated the pregnancy discrimination law by failing to cover contraceptives - but including other preventive treatments - in health insurance plans.
The EEOC said the 1978 law protects women against discrimination because they have the ability to become pregnant, not just during times when they are pregnant.
Congress in 1998 required that health plans for federal employees cover prescription contraceptives.
Erickson has said she became frustrated when she had to constantly tell customers that they would have to pay for their birth control pills - because many other health plans, like her company's, don't cover contraceptives - though many do cover abortions and vasectomies.
Bartell, founded in 1890, had 48 stores in the Seattle area as of last year and is the oldest family-owned drugstore chain in the nation.
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