Birth control for free with Obamacare? Most women didn't know

[mfcorey1]

A majority of women are unaware that birth control is available for free from health insurance plans under Obamacare—even as the Supreme Court is likely to soon consider legal fights over that law.

And while lack of awareness about the so-called "contraception mandate" might reflect overall, widespread confusion about Obamacare's details, an expert who has been following the issue said it also reflects the fact that pharmaceutical companies aren't advertising that their contraceptives could be effectively obtained free by many women.

Kristen McNeill has tracked women's knowledge of the contraception mandate for more than a year for her company, Phoenix Marketing International, which has a health-care division.

Three separate surveys by Phoenix this year found that fewer than 50 percent of women 18 to 45 knew that the Affordable Care Act requires healthinsurance plans to provide free contraceptives to women for birth control methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The percentage of women who knew contraception such as birth-control pills, diaphragms, IUDs, vaginal rings and progestin injections would be free was 44 percent in the first three months of 2013, and 45 percent in April to June—a statistically insignificant difference, McNeill noted. Each survey questioned more than 3,000 women.

http://www.today.com/money/birth-control-free-obamacare-most-women-didnt-know-2d11624208

[okaawhatever]

1. This is so important!! It is also being challenged by Hobby Lobby, for-profit Christian company. nt

[hollysmom]

2. hey, if you want to make abortion rare...... n/t

[TheKentuckian]

3. Birth control is INCLUDED. Free isn't in the vocabulary.

Best believe we all pay for it because there is no free with the cartel, they get theirs.

[jtuck004]

6. This. n/t

[JimDandy]

4. So the doctor's visit to get the prescription is free too?

Because, if you have to pay the doctor due to a deductible or copay, then it's not free.

[progree]

5. Very importantly, relatively expensive BUT HIGHLY RELIABLE forms of birth control are free under ACA

This from the Population Connection Reporter 10/2011 -- 49% of US pregnancies a year are unintended. Unintended pregnancies cost American TAXPAYERS $11 billion a year for women and their infants up to age one (and of course still more after age one). Only 0.8% of women using the copper IUD become pregnant within one year, and only 0.2% for the hormonal IUD. Hormonal implants (Implanon) have a failure rate of only 0.05% (1/2,000). In contrast, the failure rate of birth control pills is 9% ((1 in 11 chance per year, or over 5 years a 38% chance (1 - .91^5) )), primarily through incorrect or inconsistent use.

As for access - many women do find the highly reliable forms of birth control to be prohibitively expensive -- according to The Nation 12/19/12, the IUD is $800 to $1000 up front (though it lasts many years). Thus they may opt for less reliabile methods such as birth control pills, which though they are inexpensive in the short run, still at $30 - $50 a month, it is still quite a hit on a low income person's budget. That's why the Obama administration has pushed so hard to include free contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act.