The New York Times reported last night that, contrary to all the bullshit propaganda spring forth from the monkey cage of the Republican Party, that the Affordable Care Act is working precisely as intended in bringing down out of pocket costs for birth control for women.
Out-of-pocket spending on most major birth control methods fell sharply in the months after the Affordable Care Act began requiring insurance plans to cover contraception at no cost to women, a new study has found. Spending on the pill, the most popular form of prescription birth control, dropped by about half in the first six months of 2013, compared with the same period in 2012, before the mandate took effect.
You’d think that if there was a real, sincere and legitimate desire to cut done on abortions, that conservatives would applaud better access to birth control, because it would cut down on the need for abortion. As we know from the past several years, the notion that conservative opposition to abortion is real, sincere or legitimate is complete and utter crap. But the article also makes clear that not only have out of pocket costs gone down, so has the number of abortions.
The study did not address whether free or cheaper birth control led to fewer unintended pregnancies. Findings from pilot studies in St. Louis and Colorado suggested that when cost was not an issue, birth control use increased and women tended to choose the most effective methods, such as long-acting intrauterine devices and implants. That helped drive down rates of abortion and unintended pregnancy in both states.
“We have no doubt that the cost makes a difference,” said Diana Zuckerman, the president of the National Center for Health Research in Washington. “When you have free contraception, it’s going to affect pregnancy and abortion as well because money matters.”
Contraception coverage has improved drastically since the early 1990s, with most insurance companies now covering the full range of birth control methods. But women still had to bear some cost, a requirement that experts say discouraged some lower-income women from getting it and that the Affordable Care Act largely eliminated.
A government program that actually does what it promised regarding women’s reproductive rights, cutting costs, increasing access to better birth control and cutting rates of abortion substantially. What an amazingly unique idea. Thanks, Obama!