Dear Colleague Letter

Dear Colleague:

Since 1990, Congress has permitted pharmaceutical companies to offer reduce-priced drugs to certain health care entities to help ensure that lower-income individuals have access to affordable prescription drugs.  However, a provision included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2006 (DRA) unintentionally cut-off every college and university health clinic and hundreds of safety net providers from accessing these low cost drugs.  This policy change has taken us one step backward in the effort to reduce unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion.

The DRA went into effect January, and in just a matter of months the average price of birth control on college campuses has increased from $5 or $10 to $40 or $50.  As a result, many college health clinics have stopped providing birth control because they can no longer afford to do so.  

The consequences of maintaining the DRA’s mistaken restrictions on college clinics and safety-net facilities are grave – increasing the likelihood of unintended pregnancies among college students and low-income women.  That is why we are introducing legislation that would make a technical fix to the DRA and restore safety-net and university clinics’ ability to access low-cost contraceptives.  This legislation would not cost either the federal government or state Medicaid agencies.  It would merely allow drug manufacturers to offer deeply discounted prices to safety net health care providers.

We hope you will join us cosponsoring this commonsense fix to the DRA.  Please contact Eli Kogan with Rep. Joseph Crowley at x53965 or Noah Jacobson with Rep. Jim Ramstad at x52871 to sign on.

Sincerely,

Joseph Crowley
Member of Congress              
                       
Jim Ramstad
Member of Congress              
                           
Tim Ryan                                 
Member of Congress

Mark Steven Kirk
Member of Congress

Adam B. Schiff
Member of Congress