In August of this year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that, as part of its preventive health initiative under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, insurance companies would be required to provide birth control with no co-pay beginning in August of next year. This decision empowers women to have more control over their reproduction and should (hopefully) decrease the percentage of unintended pregnancies, which currently stands at a shockingly high 50 percent. Evidence shows that the medicalization of contraception—that is, positioning physicians as gatekeepers to contraception—increases cost and decreases access. In evaluating what contributes to unplanned pregnancy, 54 percent of women stated cost as an obstacle to contraception use and 66 percent claimed that an inability to obtain contraception played a role.
Today there are eleven contraceptive options for women: female condom, tubal ligation, cervical cap, diaphragm, implant, injectable, IUD, patch, pill, ring, and sponge. On the whole, female methods tend to be more expensive than male methods because most require at least one physician visit and some involve a renewable prescription. Only two of the eleven female-only contraceptives—the sponge and the female condom—do not require seeing a physician. This means that 82 percent of female methods require at least one physician visit in order to acquire the contraceptive. Moreover, 36 percent of female methods require a prescription (injectable, patch, pill, and ring), which means women must continually renew their contraceptive by going to the pharmacy or doctor. Most doctors will not continue renewing prescriptions without seeing their patients yearly, so the initial visit when the doctor prescribes the contraceptive is not enough to ensure continued access to the contraceptive.
Due to the expense of initiating and maintaining contraception, women spend 68% more out of pocket toward their reproductive health care than men of the same age. Currently 28 states mandate insurance companies to cover contraception to the same extent as they do for other prescription medications. However, 20 of these states have provisions in place for providers, plans, or employers to deny contraceptive coverage for religious or moral reasons.
The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers graduate online masters in bioethics programs. For more information on the AMBI master of bioethics online program, please visit the AMBI site.