Sunday, July 29, 2007
End to birth control discounts for students
NBC10.com reports that:
Drug companies are telling colleges the discounts are done.
For years, college students have been able to buy birth control very inexpensively. The drug companies offered the deeply discounted contraceptives to college health services. Colleges and universities tended to tack on a few bucks and sell them to students. But now, due to federal cutbacks, cheap birth control is a thing of the past. The drug makers have stopped the discounts as a result of the Deficit Reduction Act signed by the president.
To continue getting birth control, students must either claim the medication on their parents' insurance or be willing to pay a lot more money. Many college health centers offer cheaper generic brands. Some students and university officials fear a rise in unwanted pregnancies could be the result.
For more information, you can read the full article at http://www.nbc10.com/health/13763244/detail.html.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/reproductive_rights/2007/07/end-to-birth-co.html
I'm a college student who's been helping out with this blog for the last couple weeks, and just wanted to emphasize that cutting back on discounts poses a serious problem for our age group. Even if students do choose to put birth control on their parents' insurance, co-payments can still be around $300 a year -- a lot of money for a demographic that usually can't afford much more than ramen noodles and cheap beer. This undeniably means that a substantial portion of the 38 percent of college women currently using oral contraceptives will switch over to less safe methods of birth control. We should be concerned.
Posted by: Eve | Jul 30, 2007 10:44:17 AM