A brand new KFF survey finds that greater than three-quarters (77%) of females ages 18-49 favor making contraception capsules out there and not using a physician’s prescription if analysis exhibits they’re secure and efficient. Amongst those that favor making contraception capsules out there over-the-counter and who at the moment use prescription oral contraception, 60% say they’d be seemingly to make use of over-the-counter contraception capsules. Most say the primary cause is comfort (59%).
Many females who could be unlikely to make use of over-the-counter contraception capsules (46%) or are uncertain (14%) say the primary cause is that they don’t at the moment use contraception capsules nor plan to make use of them sooner or later (53%). Amongst those that use oral contraception, the primary cause is that they would favor to speak to a supplier earlier than beginning or refilling their contraception. Different causes embody issues about security, price, and medical insurance protection.
Whereas the Reasonably priced Care Act (ACA) has required most insurance policy to cowl prescription contraceptives without charge to sufferers for over a decade, 41% of females ages 18-49 are unaware of this requirement. One-quarter of those females with personal insurance coverage say they paid not less than a part of the price of their contraceptive care out-of-pocket. A rising variety of experiences be aware that some insurance policy are failing to adjust to the ACA’s contraceptive protection requirement, which has been scaled again by way of rules and court docket selections.
These survey findings come because the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration decides whether or not to approve a progestin-only oral contraceptive tablet (Opill) for over-the-counter standing, making it as accessible as ache relievers and allergy medicines.
Periodically carried out since 2001, the 2022 KFF Girls’s Well being Survey features a nationally consultant pattern of 5,201 individuals who say they had been assigned feminine at beginning (together with those that determine as ladies or different genders). Our analyses current the state of contraceptive entry and preferences, together with variations in contraceptive use and experiences by earnings, race and ethnicity, and insurance coverage standing.
Further findings embody:
- The overwhelming majority of females ages 18-64 (90%) have used contraceptives sooner or later of their reproductive years, and most have used a couple of contraceptive methodology all through their lifetime (76%).
- Most females get their contraception care at a health care provider’s workplace (77%) and like to get their care there, whilst extra providers have change into out there on-line. Clinics and well being facilities stay an important supply of contraceptive care, significantly for many who have low incomes (18%) or are uninsured (23%).
- One in 5 uninsured females say they needed to cease utilizing a contraception methodology as a result of they couldn’t afford it.
- One-quarter of females aren’t utilizing their most popular methodology of contraception, with many elevating issues about uncomfortable side effects and affordability. Solely 30% of females say they obtained all the knowledge they wanted earlier than selecting their contraception methodology.
- One in 4 females both don’t know emergency contraception capsules can be found over-the-counter or have by no means heard of them. Amongst those that have heard of emergency contraception capsules and will change into pregnant, three in ten (31%) say they don’t know the place they may get them.
Study extra in regards to the 2022 Girls’s Well being Survey findings within the report “Contraception in the USA: A Nearer Take a look at Experiences, Preferences, and Protection” and the transient “Curiosity in Utilizing Over-the-Counter Oral Contraceptive Tablets.”