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Tuesday, 03 April 2007 |
Unfair prices set for birth control pills
College students across the nation are facing skyrocketing prices for oral contraceptives, or birth control pills, offered in their student health centers – Appalachian State University students are no exception.
Prices for birth control pills “are doubling and tripling … the result of a complex change in the Medicaid rebate law that essentially ends an incentive for drug companies to provide deep discounts to colleges,” according to an Associated Press article.
The
Deficit Reduction Act, which was signed into law in 2006, was intended
to save almost $40 billion in five years by slowing the growth in
spending for Medicare and Medicade, but unfortunately it allowed
pharmaceutical companies to stop providing colleges with discounts.
Appalachian State students have already begun feeling the nationwide effects of the law.
The Appalachian believes while the Deficit Reduction Act is doing a
huge disservice to the young women in the United States, Appalachian’s
Mary S. Shook Student Health Services has done everything they can to
serve the student body.
Ortho Tricyclen-Lo, one of the most popular forms of birth control, has
been sold to students for $5 but will increase by over 100 percent in
the coming months.
To provide students with the most inexpensive availability possible,
health services purchased the pill in bulk before the price went up so
they would be able to offer it until a low-cost substitute is found.
Health services stayed up to date on the issues facing nationwide
health facilities and was able to provide Appalachian with a temporary
solution while many other campuses were unable to do so.
Unfortunately, health services was not able to find a solution for
every form of contraceptive they had supplied in the past and were
forced to increase the prices of some forms or remove others all
together.
The NuvaRing and the birth control patch are no longer offered at
health services because the cost increased to $50 – unaffordable for
most college-age users. Those who still want to use it will have to
purchase it elsewhere.
The pharmacy could not, in good conscience, supply those brands since
it wants to keep costs low, David J. Neal, a clinical pharmacist at
Appalachian Student Health Services, said.
Appalachian students need to know that health services is doing
everything in its power to help students while facing this dilemma.
The American College Health Association, which Appalachian State is a
member of, supported a proposed rule change that would ask Medicare and
Medicaid Services to add college health centers to an exemptions lists
and is currently lobbying Congress to try to get the law changed.
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If one chooses to take on the adult responsibility of having sex, then one should also take the responsibility of paying for the costs associated for not wanting to become pregnant via birth control. Aren't college students supposed to learning how to be responsible both socially and financially? How to think critically? Doesn't the health center still hand out condoms? Surely MTV hasn't given up on making every child and young adult believe that condoms are the savior of the world.
Furthermore, the simplest solution is abstinence till marriage. I know, I know - not what any college student wants to hear. But it seems to be quite clear in that it's the best prevention of unmarried women getting pregnant by having sex with immature men; the best way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and STDs; the best way to prevent the emotional trauma and regret of being used in a sexually explotive relationship; and, although you'll never hear it from NOW or Planned Barrenhood, the best way to lower the number of abortions and end abortion as a means of birth control.
Why is it that some of the best solutions are often the most simple?