Costs Up for the Pill at UW
By Heather Laroi, The Wisconsin State Journal
Mar. 3–UW-Madison students going to the University Health Services pharmacy recently to refill their contraceptive prescriptions have been in for a rude surprise.
If they usually purchase one of five most popular contraceptives on the market, their bill has increased by as much as 500 percent. A month’s supply that used to cost $8 now costs between $32 and $40.
The price hike has to do with the Federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
Under the new legislation that took effect Jan. 1, pharmaceutical companies are no longer able to provide low-cost or “nominal” pricing to university health services nationwide, and students are left facing serious sticker shock.
“When I talk to students about it, they’re awed. Most people really didn’t know (about the huge price increase),” said Kelly Gersonde, with Sex Out Loud, a student organization at UW-Madison that promotes healthy sexuality through education and activism. “They’re like, why did this happen and what am I going to do?”
“Even professional people would have a hard time paying $40 out-of-pocket costs,” said Lisa Boyce, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.
Contraceptives account for up to half of a campus pharmacy’s business, according to UHS.
One alternative is to switch to a generic brand, at a still considerable cost of $20-$25 a month, according to Kathleen Kuhnen of the UHS Women’s Clinic.
Other students may decide to tap into their family’s health insurance plans, but that’s sometimes problematic, Kuhnen said.
“There clearly are students for whom this is not a topic that they’re going to talk to family members about, so that’s certainly a barrier,” she said.
Many students are turning to Planned Parenthood clinics, which can help women of limited financial means get reduced-cost or no-cost contraceptives through programs such as the Family Planning Waiver Program.
Boyce said that Madison’s three Planned Parenthood clinics have already seen a bump in the numbers of students seeking their services and they expect that traffic will further increase as more women learn about the price hike.
“This spike is clearly serving as a barrier to health care for many women and it’s putting them needlessly at risk for an unintended pregnancy,” Boyce said. “That’s what our big concern is.
“Clearly more women need to know about alternative options out there.”
Amanda Evenstone, of UW- Madison’s Campus Women’s Center, says the legislation puts the new cost for contraceptives “ridiculously high” and doesn’t serve the best interests of students.
“It really denies a lot of accessibility of birth control,” Evenstone said. “I just don’t see how it can help students on campus.”
The American College Health Association is lobbying legislators to provide university health centers with an exemption from the DRA act.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Wisconsin State Journal
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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