Health Center birth control prices increase

Female students getting certain contraceptive medications from the Health Center pharmacy will have to start paying up to hundreds of dollars more per year to continue their medication after a bill by Congress has taken effect that eliminates certain subsidies on medications to health care providers such as those at universities.

The affected medications are hormonal contraceptives sold under the trademarks Desogen and Ortho Tri-Cyclen, which are taken orally, and NuvaRing, a contraceptive ring placed in the vagina.

"We received a letter in December from the companies that we purchase from, saying that in less than a week we would no longer be able to purchase some of our birth control pills at the deeply discounted clinic prices as a result of the Deficit Reduction Act," said Viola Brown, Health Services pharmacy supervisor.

Users of NuvaRing will experience the greatest jump in price, as it has already risen in cost from $10 to $46 for a monthly supply. Approved by the FDA in 2001 and introduced to the market the following year, many women prefer it because they find its method of using a single ring per month to be more convenient than having to remember to take a pill every day.

But after the almost five-fold price increase, students who switched to the ring from the pills will have to consider how much the added convenience is worth to them.

Desogen is expected to jump from $10 per month to about $20 sometime in the near future, although it is the only one of the three for which a generic version is available.

Ortho Tri-Cyclen, on the other hand, should remain at its current price until the end of the year since the pharmacy was able to secure a large supply at the original price. The pharmacy attempted to do the same with the other medications upon learning of the price jumps but was unsuccessful.

"Doctors determine which form of birth control a woman can take. They can't just switch pills," Brown said.

The price increases come as a result of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The act was signed into law by President Bush on February 8, 2006 but didn't take effect until January of this year. Its intention was to reduce federal spending by cutting a number of growing costs in programs including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Before the act, pharmaceutical companies supplied the medications to certain health care providers such as universities and public clinics at a heavily discounted price. Now, the incentives for the companies to offer the drugs at the lower prices have been eliminated and without them the companies have removed the discounts rather than maintaining the lower price and taking the loss.

Besides switching to a form of the medication that costs less, students have the option of finding it from a different source. For instance, health clinics such as Planned Parenthood health centers will often supply birth control for free or at a low cost; however, there are typically certain income-level restrictions that vary based on several factors.

The pharmacy buys its medications through a variety of methods to attempt to get the lowest prices for students, including through group purchasing organizations such as the Minnesota Multi-State Contracting Alliance for Pharmacy, which is operated by the state of Minnesota but has thousands of participants all over the country. Groups are currently lobbying for college health centers to be exempt from the Deficit Reduction Act.

Predictably, students have expressed displeasure at the price increase to which they or their peers will be subjected.

"I think that it is terrible that the prices have gone up, because birth control is an important thing for college students to think about. There are a lot of students who are sexually active and pregnancy could obviously change a college student's life," said a female student who asked not to be identified.

"I think that if you are taking birth control because you are sexually active then they can't complain because it is your choice. But for those who take it for other medical problems it is unfair to pay the extra cost," said Georgia Davis, a third-year management major.