Federal law starting to trigger price woes for students on birth control

Prices are rising. We see it everyday. Whether at the gas station or the grocery store, it's easy to see the cost of living going up. These price increases causes some people to change their lifestyle. But what happens when the price of a necessity goes up? Do people still buy it? This is a situation many women at UNO are presently facing.

A change in federal law has caused the prices of birth control for college students to increase drastically. According to a statement by American College Health Association, "The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 adversely affected the discounted pricing of oral contraceptives formerly extended to student health centers by pharmaceutical manufacturers."

In effect, the law made it too expensive for birth control companies to offer discounted prices to colleges because the manufacturers were forced to offer discounted prices to all federal programs.

When university pharmacies found out about the increased prices, they stockpiled on birth control to delay the price increase for their students. Although the law has been in place since Jan. 1, the prices have only recently begun to rise because of the depletion of the stockpiles.

When getting birth control from the UNO health center, women are often referred to the UNL pharmacy because of lower prices.

A pack of birth control pills, such as Ortho Tri- Cyclen Lo, from the UNL pharmacy prior to the change in law was $10. A student will now pay $40 for the same medication. This increase in price has caused many students to rethink their birth control methods.

"We are college students - we don't have 50 extra dollars a month to be spending on birth control," said junior Betsy Hills. "I think this is going to cause a lot of UNO students and women in general to rethink their birth control methods."

The chief pharmacist of the UNL health center, Larry Lockhart, and the American College Health Association are working with Congress to try to reverse the DRA.

"Congress has admitted that this was not their intent," said Lockhart, who is an active member of the ACHA.

According to Lockhart, Congress intended to reduce expenses of the federal government for Medicade and other federal programs. Instead, the prices of birth control and other medications for college students increased.

Lockhart suggests that students check into switching to similar medications that they can get for lower prices.

"Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo is the No. 1 product sold at the UNL health center," Lockhart said. "By switching from Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo to the regular Ortho Tri-Cyclen a student will save $18 a month."

Lockhart said that the UNL health center has not seen very many women quit using birth control. Most women are checking with their insurance companies, switching their medication and readjusting their budgets.