Posted on 01/30/2008 10:52:20 AM PST by traumer
Federal legislation has forced Cal Poly’s clinic to triple its prices; two senators hope to help
Cal Poly’s Health and Counseling Services has seen the cost of contraceptives triple in recent months, according to center Director Martin Bragg.
The higher cost, he said, is the result of 2005 federal legislation that barred university health clinics from access to lower-priced drugs.
And while the local Planned Parenthood organization has kept rates the same for its clients paying for birth control, the organization must raise money to cover rising costs to buy the drugs from suppliers, according to its spokeswoman.
Bragg said “thousands” of Cal Poly students seek birth control from the university’s health services center. He said he didn’t have specific numbers, but he estimates a month’s supply of birth control pills now costs Cal Poly students about $25.
That amount isn’t as much as the monthly supply of $40 to $50 for pills in other parts of the country, but it’s more than the $5 to $10 per month that once was standard.
“Students are feeling the increased costs,” he said.
Officials at Planned Parenthood say the higher prices are putting birth control out of reach for many financially strapped students, and they want Congress to make the issue a priority.
The soaring prices are the result of a quirk in a new federal law that was aimed at saving taxpayers money.
Since 1990, Congress had allowed pharmaceutical companies to of fer discounted drugs to college students and low-income people. But when Congress passed its deficit reduction bill in 2005, it included a provision that disallowed university health clinics from getting access to the lower-priced drugs.
“In the past from a marketing standpoint, birth control providers found it advantageous to offer low rates for college-age women to start on their product so that when they left college they would stay with that brand,” Bragg said.
In Washington, Planned Parenthood has found a sympathetic ear in Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. They’ve teamed up on a bill that would reverse the 2005 provision, hoping to bring back discounted prices to college campuses.
A similar bill is pending in the House of Representatives.
Bragg said Cal Poly officials won’t have specific data about how much the higher prices have affected students’ use of birth control pills until this summer.
By then, he said the university hopes to participate in a state-funded program called Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment that provides family services, including birth control, for free to low-income students.
Patients at Planned Parenthood who don’t qualify for Family PACT or other government services pay between $15.40 and $25 per month for birth control pills, said Christine Lyon, who spoke on behalf of San Luis Obispo County’s organization. Those costs haven’t gone up since the new law but the organization must pay for rising costs of pills through fundraising, Lyon said.
“One of the barriers to contraception is cost,” Lyon said. “We’re working hard to pressure Congress to keep costs affordable.”
Bragg said he favors congressional intervention in reducing the cost of contraceptives to college students.
“When you look at the data of the termination of pregnancies, this is money well spent,” he said. “The cost of terminating pregnancies or the cost of an unwanted child to society is much higher.”
Simple solution: Charge all the boys for them, and make the girls who sign up for freebies wear some kind of indicator (wrist-band, etc.) so the guys know who they paid for.
Or, just get the government out of the sex business and let the girls go to the drugstore with Daddy’s credit card.
(You do realize that supporting BC pills is supporting STD spread, right?
This is stupid. These are adults. Let them pay. Pills are cheap. They were 15.00 in 1977. 25.00 is NOTHING.
Sex aint free kids! Think of it as a life lesson and stop whining!
IIRC, WalMart generic is $4/month.
They're supposed to buy their own damned birth control. For the life of me I can't find "subsidize birth control" enumerated as a Federal responsibility anywhere in the Constitution.
Or you could go buy a 9 dollar box of condoms...
L
>>>He said he didn’t have specific numbers, but he estimates a month’s supply of birth control pills now costs Cal Poly students about $25.<<<
That’s about two hours delivering Pizza Hut pizzas; three hours washing dishes; in a good restaurant, about one hour waiting tables.
Cry me a freakin’ river.
Feeling the cost of rising from $5-$10 to $25 for a product that sells for $30-$40 in the market?
If you can’t cut out 1 night at the bar to make up the $15-$20 difference, you shouldn’t be sleeping around to begin with, let alone be in college.
keeping legs crossed = FREE
Some people here might think this is a sarcastic type of remark, but this is so true. There seems to be an unwritten unspoken assumption that college students are all having sex, and that it’s expected that they are having sex. These people want more gov’t funding based in part on saying that the costs of abortion or unwanted pregnancy are greater. Their unspoken assumption is that everyone will have sex so we have to have birth control.
The assumption is that we need to subsidize it because of the consequences of sex. I would love to see some of those issues debated.
This reminds me of an old joke that the cheapest contraceptive was a coin, such as a quarter. But the catch was that the girl had to hold it between her knees for it to be effective.
CA has apparently restricted Wal-Mart's right to sell drugs below cost. This is from the Wal-Mart website (read the last sentence).
WAL–MART/SAM'S CLUB $4 Prescription Drug Program Women's Health Medications
List Effective September 27, 2007
Applies to up to a 30 day supply at commonly prescribed dosages.
DRUG NAME AND DOSAGE QUANTITY
ESTRADIOL 0.5MG TABLET 30
ESTRADIOL 1MG TABLET 30
ESTRADIOL 2MG TABLET 30
ESTROPIPATE 0.75MG TABLET 30
ESTROPIPATE 1.5MG TABLET 30*
MEDROXYPROGESTERONE AC 2.5MG TABLET 30
MEDROXYPROGESTERONE AC 5MG TABLET 30
MEDROXYPROGESTERONE AC 10MG TABLET 10
The following Family Planning items are now available for $9:
DRUG NAME AND DOSAGE QUANTITY
New CLOMIPHENE 50MG 5**
New SPRINTEC 28-DAY 28**
New TRI-SPRINTEC 28-DAY 28**
* The $4 Prescription program is subject to the following restrictions.
This program is available at all Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market pharmacies, except in North Dakota (the pharmacies inside North Dakota Wal-Mart stores are leased and operated by third-party providers). $4 prescriptions are for up to a 30-day supply of a covered drug at a commonly prescribed dosage. Your participation in certain prescription-drug plans may entitle you to pay even less than $4 for certain prescriptions. If you are eligible, you will be charged the lowest applicable amount. Certain drugs are priced higher in CA, CO, HI, MN, MT, PA, TN, WI, and WY due to state laws.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.