Making Sure Insurers Cover Birth Control  The state of
Washington has fined the insurance company Regence for not
complying with a state law that requires coverage of
contraception. The company had covered insertion of IUDs, but
not removal. Sorry, ladies, you should have thought of that
before you tried to prevent God's will!  In all seriousness, it
was probably cheapness and not morality that motivated them.
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "When the women
wanted to remove the device because it was outdated, or because
they wanted to get pregnant, the insurance giant did not
consider those reasons as 'medically necessary' state officials
said Monday." The company was ordered to pay the women a total
of $148,000, plus eight percent interest, and fined $100,000.
This is entirely a product of state regulation; according to
Guttmacher, "28 states require insurers that cover prescription
drugs in general to provide coverage of the full range of FDA-
approved contraceptive drugs and devices." But twen