Archived Edition: May 09, 2007 | Back to Current	Sep 10, 2010

College will no longer provide oral contraceptive
Amanda Korman - Executive Editor

For the approximately 125 students at the College who currently obtain their oral contraceptive from the Health Center, the days of reduced prices and private access are numbered.

Due to the Federal Deficit Reduction Act, which was signed in 2005 and went into effect Jan. 1, 2007, students who now purchase a month’s supply of birth control in a $10 pill pack through the Health Center will be paying triple that amount starting in the fall. In addition, these students will now have to get a prescription through a pharmacy.

The Health Center had previously been able to purchase one brand of oral contraceptive, Cyclessa, directly from the manufacturer and pass their savings onto students. When the changes take effect, all students will have to use their health insurance or pay cash for oral contraceptives. Students will not feel the impact of the act until this fall because the Health Center purchased a large enough supply of pill packs to last through the rest of this academic year.

According to Ruth Harrison, director of Health Services, many health insurance plans, if they cover prescriptions at all, only authorize the purchase of a one-month’s supply at a time. This amounts to more trips to the pharmacy, and requires specific authorization from the insurance company to purchase enough pill packs to cover study abroad or a summer away from campus.

Health insurance is also an unreliable method for paying for oral contraceptives for other reasons, according to Mary Hoban, director of the American College Health Association (ACHA) National College Health Assessment program office. Many health insurances will not cover prescription medications like birth control, Hoban said. Even if they are covered by a plan, students whose plan is provided for by their parents may still pay cash for privacy reasons.

The ACHA has been working to reverse the act since the organization learned of its existence in December 2006. Hoban said the organization has been working with the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services to fix the issue from a regulatory perspective.

The group is also pursuing collaboration with Congress to legislate a technical correction that would make colleges exempt from the limitations on reduced price drugs, as they were before.

The ACHA represents approximately 1000 institutions, not all of which have previously provided their students with prescription contraceptives. Hoban conducted a survey of the institutions, and of 129 responses, 99 of the schools reported purchasing oral contraceptives at a reduced price.

“It wasn’t an intentional change,” Hoban said, “It was more of an oversight while trying to tighten up Medicaid. We can probably fix it, I just can’t tell when or how it’s going to go down.”

Although there are no sure signs that an amendment will come about, “I’m still trying to be optimistic,” Hoban said. “Neither option is a quick or easy fix. It’s taking a lot of time and energy. It’s a very slow process.”