Research Conducted at University of Pittsburgh Has Updated Our Knowledge about Insurance (Contraceptive Use Among Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage Enrollees): Insurance

2024 MAY 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- A new study on Insurance is now available. According to news reporting from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Medicare is the primary source of health insurance coverage for reproductive-age people with Social Security Disability Insurance. However, Medicare does not require contraceptive coverage for pregnancy prevention, and little is known about contraceptive use in traditional data to assess variations in contraceptive use and methods used by traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage enrollees, as well as among enrollees with and without noncontraceptive clinical indications.”

Financial support for this research came from National Institute for Reproductive Health.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Pittsburgh, “Clinically indicated contraceptives are used for reasons other than pregnancy prevention, including menstrual regulation or to treat acne, menorrhagia, and endometriosis. Contraceptive use was higher among Medicare Advantage enrollees than traditional Medicare enrollees, but use in both populations was low compared with contraceptive use among Medicaid enrollees. We found significant variation by Medicare type with respect to contraceptive methods used. Relative to traditional Medicare, the probability of long-acting reversible contraception was more than three times higher in Medicare Advantage, and the probability of tubal sterilization was more than ten times higher. Overall, Medicare enrollees with noncontraceptive clinical indications had twice the probability of contraceptive use as those without them.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Medicare coverage of all contraceptive methods without cost sharing would help address financial barriers to contraceptives and support the reproductive autonomy of disabled enrollees.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Contraceptive Use Among Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage Enrollees. Health Affairs, 2024;43(1):98-107. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Jacqueline Ellison, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, United States. Additional authors for this research include Sabnum Pudasainy, Deirdre Quinn, Sonya Borrero, Iris Olson, Qingwen Chen, Marian P. Jarlenski and Theresa I. Shireman.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00286. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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