This is a short diary, but something amazing is happening. Due to the ACA, so many more people are getting birth control pills that there are shortages of some brands!
My daughters are both just out of their teenage years and like most young 20 somethings, are busy, disorganized, and apt to careen from mini-emergency to mini-emergency. One of them was leaving for a weekend trip with her boyfriend today and suddently realized that she was out of her birth control pills, a generic version of Yaz.
For most people, this isn't quite such an emergency, because you usually take 5 days of sugar pills anyway. However, she has pretty volatile bipolar disorder type II with rapid cycling, and her psychiatrist and her gynecologist had long ago determined that she stays much more stable if she just takes the pill every day without ever stopping because the estrogen she would otherwise produce messes with the uptake of her bipolar drug Lamictal. So for her to even skip one day could result in a manic episode, not something we wanted to have happen 300 miles away. She had tried to fill it herself but was simply told they were out.
My husband called the pharmacy and was told that the manufacturers of these generic birth control pills are having trouble keeping up with demand because so many more people are getting prescriptions for and taking the pill. The brand name would cost us $160, but we were hoping to avoid that. My husband explained the situation and why it was very important that we find some. They called every CVS in the Los Angeles area with no luck. They then called all the Walgreens and located one package so my daughter will be ok.
I thought it was an interesting affect of the ACA because it says 1) the drug manufacturers completely underestimated the increased demand for birth control pills and 2) this means that many thousands of abortions will NOT happen because lower income people were still able to go get the pill and thereby prevent the pregnancies in the first place.
You'd think you'd be hearing about this on the news -- the pharmacists said it is becoming an issue. I guess then the right wing nut jobs might get upset because of all the precious implantations that were being prevented and all. And if the abortion rate goes down under Obama, then how will the Corporatists control the crazies with another fringe issue?
Just sayin'