In wake of Affordable Care Act, dramatic declines in out-of-pocket spending on contraception

[SidDithers]

http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2015/07/10/in-wake-of-affordable-care-act-dramatic-declines-in-out-of-pocket-spending-on-contraception/

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, American women are saving hundreds of dollars on birth control, according to the first study to document the impact of health reform on prescription contraception spending.

To conduct the study, which was published this month in Health Affairs, researchers analyzed claims data from a large national insurer between January 2008 and June 2013, eventually examining data linked to more than 790,800 women. They found that the average out-of-pocket expense decreased for nearly all prescription contraceptive methods on the market. In particular, the average out-of-pocket savings per patient was an annual savings of $255 for the oral contraceptive pill and $248 for an intrauterine device (more commonly known as an IUD, a long-acting, reversible contraceptive that is inserted into a woman’s uterus). The average out-of-pocket costs for both the pill and IUDs dropped by 20 percentage points after the ACA kicked in. With implementation of the ACA, prescription contraceptives are among an array of preventive services that private insurers must now cover without cost sharing. (However, the contraceptive requirement does not apply to certain grandfathered plans and employers who are exempted for religious reasons.)

So, why is this so important? Well, in addition to widening access to a critical component of women’s health care and giving women control over their reproductive lives, the study’s authors — Nora Becker and Daniel Polsky — noted that contraception access has far-reaching social and economic benefits as well. They write:

Contraceptive use also has important effects on families and the economy. Studies of the effects of legalization of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s and 1970s found that increased access to contraception was associated with lower rates of subsequent entry into poverty, higher rates of labor-force participation and entry into professional school, and higher wages for women. These economic gains also affect subsequent generations: The children of women with increased access to contraception have higher rates of college completion and higher incomes, compared to children whose mothers did not have access to family planning.

The Health Affairs study found that between June 2012 and June 2013, average out-of-pocket costs from the pill dropped from $33.58 to $19.84, while costs for an IUD insertion fell from $293.28 to $145.24. In addition to those two forms of contraception, researchers also found significant reductions in out-of-pocket spending for emergency contraception, diaphragms, contraceptive implants and contraceptive injections.

Sid

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. It's working.