{"id":41123,"date":"2019-07-11T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/11\/yearlong-birth-control-supply-for-female-vets-could-cut-costs-and-unplanned-pregnancies\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:48:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:48:47","slug":"yearlong-birth-control-supply-for-female-vets-could-cut-costs-and-unplanned-pregnancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2019\/07\/11\/yearlong-birth-control-supply-for-female-vets-could-cut-costs-and-unplanned-pregnancies\/","title":{"rendered":"Yearlong birth control supply for female vets could cut costs and unplanned pregnancies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Department of Veterans Affairs could save about $2 million a year in prenatal, birth and newborn care costs by offering female veterans a year\u2019s supply of birth control pills, researchers say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VA does not currently offer an upfront 12-month supply option. Approximately 24,000 women receive oral contraceptives and a policy change could prevent an estimated 583 unintended pregnancies, found Colleen Judge-Golden, an M.D., Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see extended contraceptive dispensing as a win-win,\u201d Judge-Golden said, \u201cpromoting women\u2019s health and women\u2019s autonomy to use birth control as they decide, while also being economically sustainable for the VA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge-Golden, the lead author of the paper published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/a>, analyzed the expense of the proposed program with senior author Sonya Borrero, M.D., M.S., the associate director of the VA\u2019s Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion. Research found that money saved on health care costs would exceed the cost of providing larger upfront quantities of birth control pills to women.<\/p>\n\n\n\t