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ACLU of Wisconsin Wins Health Insurance Coverage of Birth Control for County Employees (9/12/2006)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.orgACLU of Wisconsin Wins Health Insurance Coverage of Birth Control for County
Employees
MILWAUKEE -
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin announced today that three
Marathon County employees have won the right to health insurance coverage for
prescription contraceptives. The decision highlights the ways in which the
county’s refusal to pay for contraception was illegal sex discrimination.
On September 8, 2006, an Administrative Law Judge in the Wisconsin
Equal Rights Division concluded: “Marathon County violated the Wisconsin
Fair Employment Act when it excluded from coverage, under its employee health
insurance plan, prescription contraceptives, except when medically
necessary.” The decision requires the county to pay for the women’s
prescription contraceptives and to pay the attorneys fees and costs of the
litigation.
“Judge Gary Olstad’s decision is consistent with the
rulings of lower federal courts and the federal Equal Employment Opportunities
Commission in concluding that excluding birth control from otherwise
comprehensive drug coverage is a form of sex discrimination,” said Larry Dupuis,
Legal Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. “Such an exclusion harms women, who
bear the physical burdens of an unplanned pregnancy, but not men, who do not
bear those burdens. The decision also builds on the recent opinion by the
Wisconsin attorney general that the Wisconsin Fair Employment law forbids
discrimination against individuals who take contraceptives to prevent
pregnancy.”
As Judge Olstad’s decision logically explained:
“Pregnancy is a medical condition. . . . Only women can become pregnant.
Contraceptives are prescribed primarily to prevent pregnancy. [Marathon
County’ prescription drug plan] includes coverage for sundry prescription
medications designed to prevent various medical conditions but excludes
prescription contraceptives. . . . [F]ailure to provide prescription
contraceptives, while, at the same time, providing other prescription
medications of a preventive nature, constitutes discrimination because of gender
with respect to compensation within the meaning of the Wisconsin Fair Employment
Act.”
“Family planning is essential to all women, including working
women,” said Brenda Burnett, one of the county employees in the case. “I
hope that other employers will recognize the unfairness of excluding
contraceptives from coverage without the need to resort to the legal
process.”
The ACLU of Wisconsin was joined by cooperating counsel
Steve Robinson of Wausau and Rebecca Salawdeh of the Milwaukee law firm of
Urban & Taylor in arguing the case.
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