Gird Your Loins, Wallets: Campus Birth Control Prices Set to Skyrocket
In a tragic turn of events for college students nationwide, birth control costs on campuses are going through the roof. Last year's Deficit Reduction Act has recently been fingered as the culprit in the rising costs.
The $39 billion in cuts were leveled at things like subsidized student loans, Medicaid, candy, children's toys, etc; Gawker alerted us this morning to a Wall Street Journal article which dished the full details of its implications for subsidized contraceptives.
Anne Marie Chaker writes that "through an arcane set of circumstances" the act has disincentivized drug companies from subsidizing their product for school markets.
The contraceptive prices offered to schools are now included in a complex calculation that determines certain Medicaid-related rebates that drug makers must pay to states. In this calculation, deep discount prices would have the effect of increasing drug makers' payments.
Colleges and universities say the change is having a significant impact on their health centers and the students they serve. Prices have begun skyrocketing for many popular brands of birth control. Health centers are having to reconfigure their offerings and write new prescriptions. And college students are making some tough choices, such as switching to cheaper generic brands or forgoing their privacy in order to claim their pills on their parents' insurance.
The higher prices took effect earlier this year but savvy college health providers stocked up before the changes, forestalling the impending contraceptive cost crisis. Don't just feel bad for the "very fertile" college women who will now have to suffer higher prices or a lack of privacy to get their birth control, though. The schools that received those subsidized products were making a tidy profit, too, which has now evaporated as they turn to subsidize contraceptives for their students.
Free market solutions, anyone? I hope you're happy, Republicans.
--SAM JACKSON
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July 26th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
These summer replacements are even lamer than the usual hacks
July 26th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
In other news, keeping your legs closed is still free.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
this is old news. did you even bother to pick up and read your campus daily this spring? oh, wait…
July 26th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
but actually not a bad job with the headline. loin-girding always good for some laughs
July 26th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
OH NO THE FREE MARKET IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL
July 26th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Oh, W. It seems that you and I are the only ones who realize that women deserve to be punished for having sex, and if a good old-fashioned forced impregnation won’t work (damn that Roe! I wish they’d hurry up and overturn it!) we can hit them in the wallet.
July 26th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
d08: you’re an idiot.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Yeah, these people are pretty mediocre. I don’t know why the IvyGate Overlords picked them over yours truly…and caused 9/11
July 27th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Pregnancy is a punishment for having sex? I thought it was simple biological cause and effect. We’re in college and can’t be expected to manage our own fertility without government/parental assistance? Surely we don’t suck that much at life - I think we’ll get though this…
July 27th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Seriously, d08: you’re an idiot.
The free market has nothing to do with the complex ways health care and perscription drugs are provided in the country. If women are getting cheap no-baby pills, I’m all for it.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
“The free market has nothing to do with the complex ways health care and perscription drugs are provided in the country.”
No, that was my point. I thought it was funny that the editor posted a story about health care/prescription drugs and then ended the post with the cutting social commentary “free market solutions, anyone?”
birth control is great. subsidized birth control is great. oh look, sam jackson, you made a joke about republicans, look how politically aware you are.
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I am amazed that all of the “reporters” writing about this subject have neglected one thing – ABSTENANCE! It is free. Or, what about buying a “toy” to satisfy that urge. They probably cost less than the new cost of birth control, you never run out, never need a prescription, and they are 100% effective, not 99.99%. Everyone keeps saying the government needs to bring back the subsidy so prices remain low. I don’t want to pay for anyone else’s birth control VIA MY taxes. Where else does the government get the money to subsidize these people’s sexual habits? Why don’t they just not have sex? Carry a condom? They are cheap and don’t they also protect better against stds! Are reporters ever going to report on the personal responsibility side of stories, or is it always going to be what is the government not doing now? It seems the “news” is always looking for the shock angle. Since no one ever asks citizens to be responsible maybe this is a good time to start. It would definitely have shock value as people are never asked to take responsibility for their own actions! I saved my money and opted for the permanent birth control from my OBGYN but I received NO subsidy or discount for my responsible action. Until then, I practiced safe sex via condoms.
I am just a regular citizen asking for my fellow citizens to carry their own weight. I am tired of subsidizing others’ sex lives. That is an option and something people should take care of themselves.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Lawl. “Our right to have birth control subsidized at the expense of all taxpayers has been infringed upon!” Get a life and keep it on your pants you worthless sexpots.