By
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Health insurers have generally agreed to cover the newly approved RU-486 abortion pill, according to a survey of leading managed care plans.
The health insurers, including heavyweights Aetna, United HealthCare and Cigna, will cover the abortion pill as a standard benefit.
PacifiCare will leave the decision up to its doctors, because it considers the pill a new method of performing abortions, rather than being a new drug.
Humana Inc. and Kaiser Permanente said they are still deciding whether to cover the pill.
In keeping with standard abortion coverage, insurers will give employers the choice of whether to offer the benefit to their workers.
Danco Laboratories Inc., which is selling the abortion pill under the brand name Mifeprex, said it should be available later this month. The FDA approved Mifeprex last Thursday.
A price has not be set on Mifeprex, though including doctor visits and counseling it is expected to cost about the same as a surgical abortion- about $700.
Coverage of new medical technology and new drugs has become a tricky issue facing health insurers trying to keep control of rising health costs. Often when the Food and Drug Administration approves a new drug, a managed care company then reviews the drug's benefits before deciding whether to cover it.
What made the abortion pill different from other new drugs, is that the pills are only dispensed directly from a physician's office and not through a pharmacy. Thus plans such as United have decided to cover the abortion pill as a standard medical benefit rather than a drug benefit.
