Impact of the federal contraceptive coverage guarantee on out-of-pocket payments for contraceptives: 2014 update

BackgroundThe Affordable Care Act requires most private health plans to cover contraceptive methods, services and counseling, without any out-of-pocket costs to patients; that requirement took effect for millions of Americans in January 2013.Study designData for this study come from a subset of the 1842 women aged 18-39 years who responded to all four waves of a national longitudinal survey. This analysis focuses on the 892 women who had private health insurance and who used a prescription contraceptive method during any of the four study periods. Women were asked about the amount they paid out of pocket in an average month for their method of choice.ResultsBetween fall 2012 and spring 2014, the proportion of privately insured women paying zero dollars out of pocket for oral contraceptives increased substantially, from 15% to 67%. Similar changes occurred among privately insured women using injectable contraception, the vaginal ring and the intrauterine device.ConclusionsThe implementation of the federal contraceptive coverage requirement appears to have had a notable impact on the out-of-pocket costs paid by privately insured women, and that impact has increased over time.ImplicationsThis study measures the out-of-pocket costs for women with private insurance prior to the federal contraceptive coverage requirement and after it took effect; in doing so, it highlights areas of progress in eliminating these costs.