Author: Elizabeth Cutler
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which calls for a spike in the price of birth control pills on college health centers, officially went into effect Jan. 1, 2007. This piece of legislation removes college health centers from a category that previously made them eligible for government subsidies on some prescription medications, including birth control pills like the popular Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo.
According to a report by CNN, the changes that are happening now were set in motion in 2005 with a bill that primarily concerned Medicaid but ultimately included college health centers. With the new law in place, it is more expensive for drug companies to be involved with Medicaid, making it less appealing for these companies to sell prescription drugs to medical establishments, such as college health centers, at reduced prices. Consequently, the schools must pay more to obtain the medication and must charge a new price to make up for losses.
The precise change in price varies from school to school. At Oxy this means a spike in price from $15 to $35 per pack of Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo birth control pills. Students on the Mega Life student insurance can later get reimbursed for the cost.
“[The higher price] might be a hardship for students who can’t afford to pay that up-front cost,” Cindy Chu, a Family Nurse Practitioner Interim Medical Coordinator at Emmons, said.
Since health centers were aware of the impending change, there was enough time to order extra quantities of Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo before the price rise. Emmons Health Center currently has approximately 550 extra packs of Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo stockpiled. Until that supply runs out, the price will stay at $15 for Oxy students.
“I think it is unfortunate that access to birth control is now limited to college students. I guess the best we can do is tell people where they can get birth control and hope this doesn’t prevent people from being able to use this kind of contraception,” Sonia Huizar (junior) said. Huizar is a UEP major who interned for Planned Parenthood last fall.
Options still exist for students who regularly purchase birth control from Emmons. They can pay the new price or seek outside providers.
“We do have other community resources,” Chu said, adding that Emmons would help students make the switch to a different provider if they desired.
The American College Health Association (ACHA) has taken this issue on as a lobbying point. The ACHA wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that outlined the potential negative effects of the new legislation.
“Many students simply cannot afford increases in the costs of their contraceptive drugs in the face of sharp increases in the cost of their education,” the ACHA said in the letter.
While statistics on how many Oxy students buy birth control pills from Emmons are not readily available for print, the ACHA reports that approximately 39 percent of undergraduate women currently use oral contraceptives. For these college students who have been relying on affordable contraceptives, the new law “creates barriers,” Chu said.
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