Letters to the Editor
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30 to 50 dollars?!?!
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but don't birth controls pills cost the pharmaceutical companies something along the line of pennies to make and distribute, name-brand pricing aside?
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Price of the Pill
We're against abortion so we'll make birth control cheap, effective, and easy to obtain! No, wait, that's not it. Let's make birth control expensive; we'll tell pharmacists they don't have to legally fill prescriptions if they oppose birth control for "moral" reasons; we'll block access to minors and create hoops to all women to jump through. Then, when they do get pregnant, since we're against abortion, we'll protest at clinics, block access, and shame women for seeking one.
We're against abortion so we'll encourage women to have their babies; we'll subsidize prenatal care and healthcare for mothers and babies, mandate paid maternity leave so that mothers can nurse their babies, and provide high-quality subsidized childcare for when they do return to work. No wait! Let's not do any of that. But let's pay for a national ad campaign so the government can tell women they ought to be breastfeeding. Somehow. Yeah!
BTW--I have never had a health insurance plan that paid for birth control, and I had a very good plan at one point, working for a large international company, that paid for all prescriptions (except birth control).
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Grad Students Also Affected
College students aren't the only ones affected - grad and professional students are required to have health insurance coverage, often too old (>25) to be on their parents' plans, and usually the school insurance plan is the cheapest or is included for PhD students. Therefore, we are forced to use the college clinic as primary care or be faced with high co-pays.
My school health insurance (same as for an undergraduate) does cover birth control but the co-pay is $30 brand name and $15 generic plus some varieties (such as Nuva-Ring) are not covered at all.
Ideally, we would all be using condoms but many people like a backup method and older students are often married or in multi-year relationships that are presumably leading to marriage or other permanence. For most couples the idea of a lifetime of condom-use for birth control (presuming monogamy and testing for STDs) is unacceptable.
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birth control is not just for preventing pregnancy
I've been on the pill since i was 16. Not just to protect against pregnancy, but to keep migraines and PMDD in check. PMDD, for those of you who don't have the pleasure, is PMS on steriods. I went off the pill once, when i was 22, because i was single and celibate. I had forgotten what would happen when i got my period: i became depressed and despondent. I deleted all my pictures off Myspace because I was convinced I was ugly. I had cramps so bad that i spent two or three days in acute pain. My breasts were swollen and achey, and even my skin ached so bad that my clothes touching my skin was occasionally enough to bring me to tears. I went through for three months, and then unable to stand it, went back on the pill.
I am not alone in experiencing PMS this bad. The responsibilities of school and work are such that one just cant take four days a month off to lie in bed crying and feeling ugly and in intense pain.
I feel like the medical benefits of the pill are left out of the discussion far too frequently. Yes, the pill protects you from pregnancy. No, i don't have to be sexually active. But I don't have the option of losing a week of my life every month.
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No, BCPs cost more than "pennies" to make
I find it odd that people think just because something is small (a birth control pill) that it must cost nothing to make. iPods are small. Try buying one for a penny.
The main thing you are paying for when you buy products like this is safety. A pharmaceutical company could sell industrial grade estradiol for pennies, but something tells me no one wants to buy a pill that is 10-30% impure, depending on the batch.
The whole Vioxx situation, as well as the recent scandals with leaded toys, should convince anyone that we want drugs that are as safe as we can get them. That means they will cost a little more.
I don't think BCPs should be completely free -- people tend to waste things they will not pay for -- but $10-20 should be the target price. I am against abortions, and this seems to be the best alternative. Although -- lets be honest -- abstinence isn't the end of the world if you don't have $20 to spend.
And by the way, why can the boyfriends pony up the money?
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$1 a pill for name brand is about right
Branded drugs go for $1-$3 per pill more or less for most of the scrips people typically have on a long term basis. Generics through a mail order provider like Medco might cost a 10th of that. So maybe colleges should look into long term agreements with discount mail order providers like Medco instead of trying to fight The Man. Or, you could just determine it's a human right and jack up EVERYONE's tuition to pay for the rather pricey benefits of a few. What better way to inculcate the infuriating unfairness of PC Marxism but to force everyone to pay for the sexual behaviors of a few?
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$30 a month, boo hoo
My copay for one drug that was *keeping me alive* was $35 for six days' worth, and I had to go through three separate rounds of it.
A comfortable life doesn't come for free.
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Just sayin' a propos of nothing
Could I just mention that condoms (bow bow scrape scrape, how great they art and yes everybody should use one all the time) actually suck?
Birth control actually sucks in pretty much all versions, one way or another, and it is too bad that most of the expense (physical & financial) for most forms falls on women, but the fact remains: condoms, which is the one place men can actually take some of the responsibility, really really suck.
Just sayin. Cuz you aren't supposed to. Say it out loud that is.
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SOME cheap birth control pills are available
Wal-mart recently expanded their $4 formulary with a $9 class that includes generic Ortho-tricyclin and Ortho-novum. True it doesn't include Ortho-tricyclin-lo or Yaz or the NuvaRing (the most popular pills among young women), but some options are better than none at all.