Joseph Spector

USA TODAY Network

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York will strengthen existing regulations to require health insurers to provide free coverage for contraception and "medically necessary" abortions, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday.

The move comes in response to potential cuts to reproductive-health coverage through the Affordable Care Act by the new Republican-led Congress and President Donald Trump.

“Women deserve to make a fair wage and the same salary as any man, they deserve to work in an office free of sexual harassment, they deserve comprehensive paid family leave, and they deserve control over their health and reproductive decisions,” the Democratic governor said in a statement.

On the same day as women's marches across the state and in Washington, D.C., Cuomo said he is directing the state's Department of Financial Services to mandate the coverage by health insurers. The agency regulates the state's insurers.

The regulations, the state said, will ensure "contraceptive drugs and devices are covered by commercial health insurance policies without co-pays, coinsurance, or deductibles regardless of the future of the Affordable Care Act."

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The changes will also require contraceptives to be available in at least one month’s supply, as well as make all medically necessary abortion services "covered by commercial health insurance policies without co-pays, coinsurance, or deductibles."

The regulations will provide a free, initial three-month supply for contraception; then a supply of up to 12 months.

New York runs its own health care exchange, although it's heavily subsidized by the federal government. It has about 3.3 million enrollees.

Whatever changes are made to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Cuomo said, "Women in our state will have cost-free access to reproductive health care, and we hope these actions serve as a model for equality across the nation.”

Cuomo's office said state law already prohibits an insurer from "limiting or excluding coverage by type of illness or medical condition," but now it will ensure that includes abortions.

The new regulation, though, will better clarify the law and include an exemption for religious employers, the state said.

Cuomo's announcement comes just days after the Democratic-controlled Assembly passed similar bills, but the bills' fate were uncertain in the Republican-led Senate.

Cuomo's effort doesn't appear to expand coverage already available under the health exchange, while the Assembly bill would have added further requirements, according to the state Health Plan Association, which represents insurers.

"This announcement appears to seek to continue, through regulation, coverage that plans are offering today under federal law," the group said in a statement.

State Conservative Party chairman Mike Long criticized Cuomo's decision, saying the state shouldn't mandate coverage on insurers.

He contended that Cuomo is eying a run for president in 2020 and doing so at the expense of businesses and taxpayers.

"If insurance companies want to pay for that, it should be up to them," Long said.

Cuomo spokeswoman Dani Lever responded, "Protecting reproductive rights has been long part of the governor's agenda."

Women's rights groups praised the announcement, which came on the eve of the 44th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade court decision.

Trump’s executive order Friday to start to overhaul the Affordable Care Act could lead to big bills for contraception coverage, said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, a New York-based group.

"This provides welcome assurance to women in New York, who have at times found information about and coverage for these services to be inconsistent, confusing or lacking," Miller said in a statement.

Joseph Spector is chief of the Gannett Albany (N.Y.) bureau