(NBC News) New patients who bought health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges have been stocking up on prescriptions, with one notable exception — birth control, new data show.
The report from prescription provider Express Scripts shows many more new patients than usual filled prescriptions for drugs that fight the AIDS virus, for pain medications, for pricey specialty medications to treat chronic conditions such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis, for anti-seizure drugs and for antidepressants.
But the proportion of prescriptions filled for contraceptives was 31 percent lower than the average in plans the provider usually handles. That might be ironic, as the issue of paying for birth control became first a partisan battle in Washington, and one that’s gone all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court heard arguments last month on two suits by private companies that want to limit the types of birth control they pay for.
