July 09, 2015
Women are saving a lot of money on birth control thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
According to a recent study published in Health Affairs, contraceptive spending has gone down by 22 percent since Obamacare went into effect in 2013.
The average user is reportedly saving $255 annually.
For intrauterine device users, the average saving was found to be $248, and the cost of emergency contraceptives has also dramatically decreased by over 90 percent down to $1.75 per prescription.
Obamacare requires private insurers to provide full and comprehensive contraceptive coverage, which includes intrauterine devices, oral contraceptives, under-skin implants, and other forms of FDA-approved birth control options, without charging any extra out-of-pocket costs.
Previously, contraceptive spending was reportedly amounting to roughly 44 percent of the average woman’s annual health expenditures.
While there are some limitations to the ACA -- for example, employers are not required to cover every brand of contraceptives and some are exempt from certain parts of the contraceptive mandate for religious reasons -- the savings are a promising sign for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which made a nationwide drop in unplanned pregnancies a priority of its Healthy People 2020 campaign.
The country's current rate of unplanned pregnancy is about 51 percent.
Read the full report here.
