Under a new law, District of Columbia women will聽be able to scratch one item off their list of things to worry about: running out of birth control pills.
Under , which passed its congressional review period this month, women will be able to get a year鈥檚 supply of pills at once.
Prescriptions for birth control pills typically have to be renewed every 30 or 90 days,聽potentially resulting in women missing scheduled pills. The yearlong provision聽.
Earlier this year, to pass a law allowing women to get a year鈥檚 supply of contraceptives at once. That law takes effect next year.
Other states have considered similar measures, including New York, Rhode Island and Washington, says Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research and education organization. In addition, a few state Medicaid programs currently allow women to receive 12 months of contraceptives, she says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of a no-brainer,鈥� says Nash. 鈥淚f you want to prevent pregnancy, you want to make accessible the methods to do that.鈥�
Women who received a year鈥檚 supply of birth control pills were 30 percent less likely to have an unplanned pregnancy than those who received either a聽one-month or three-month supply of pills, according to a published in Obstetrics and Gynecology. The study linked the number of packs of pills dispensed to 84,401 women in California鈥檚 Medi-Cal program in 2006 to the number of pregnancies and births.
Insurers have raised concerns about allowing the yearlong prescriptions. 鈥淢aking sure women have access to the medications they need is critically important,鈥� says Clare Krusing, a spokesperson for America鈥檚 Health Insurance Plans, a trade group. 鈥淏ut we do have concerns that an automatic one-year supply of these medications will pose safety and affordability issues for patients,聽particularly if聽a woman is picking a brand-name over a generic, for example, or chooses to stop using contraception and聽is left with potentially months-worth of treatments.鈥�
The health law removed many of the barriers that women faced in their ability to afford birth control, says Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for health and reproductive rights at the National Women鈥檚 Law Center. The law requires most employers and insurers to without charging women anything out of pocket.聽Now legislators are trying to identify other gaps that need to be addressed.
鈥淭his law is going to make a difference for D.C.,鈥� Borchelt says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a high teen pregnancy rate, and pharmacies that are not well located for low-income areas.鈥�
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