NEWS ARTICLE, "FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS, A TOUGHER PILL TO TAKE," BY AMY ZIMMER, METRO NY (05/03/07)
GREENWICH VILLAGE. As birth control pill prices have doubled or tripled at college health centers nationwide, universities and students are trying to find ways to cope.
The increases have hit only recently. A deficit-reduction bill the federal government passed in 2005 took effect in January, changing the Medicaid rebate law and ending drug companies' incentives to pass significant discounts down to colleges.
"It took a lot of colleges by surprise," said Dr. Henry Chung, assistant vice president of New York University's student health center. "The only places now getting the discounts are VA centers, community clinics and Planned Parenthood - centers covered with federal funding. No one was even aware that college health centers would be affected because it was buried in the legislation."
Health care workers are working with students on "low-cost options," Chung explained, which may include encouraging students to switch to generic pills rather than the brands they've been using.
"The difference is significant," Chung said. "In the past, students were paying a low of $5 to $10 to a high of $15 - it was low enough that their co-pay didn't even kick in. Now, it's closer to $25 to $45, depending on the co-pay of their health insurance."
Chung said NYU was trying to help the students by offering students birth control pills at the wholesale prices the center pays.
"We're making zero money off the pills. We made the commitment to try to keep prices down," Chung said. "If it cost us $10 before, we would charge $15, for a $5 'handling fee.'" That money was not profit, however. It was used for other university initiatives such as free HIV testing and free flu vaccines, which, Chung said, the school would still offer.
Chung's clinic has no data on how students' birth control buying patterns are changing because the change is so recent, but "we're tracking it closely," he said.
NYU's health center, like that of many other universities, has contacted the American College Health Association, a Baltimore-based advocacy group that is working with legislatures to try to amend the new rules.
"We estimate about 3 million undergraduate women use oral contraceptives," said Mary Hoban, program director at the ACHA. "Whether or not they've all been getting them at discount prices at university health centers, I don't know, but this is still going to affect many people. Some colleges were able to order in bulk before the new rules took effect, but even those are now running out."
The price hike hasn't yet affected NYU grad student Tracy Donira, 32.
"My doctor back home [in Alabama] gave me a whole year's worth," she said. "She said, 'You don't want to worry about the cost.' Another friend got her birth control from Planned Parenthood because of the cost increase. Everything is already so expensive here."
'Roadblocks'
Planned Parenthood of New York City does not yet have data as to whether more students are using its services because of price hikes. Joan Malin, the organization's CEO, said, "More than 17 million low-income women in the U.S. need subsidized family planning services and there is not enough funding to meet the need. This has been exacerbated by roadblocks that limit universities and other nonprofit health organizations from accessing low-cost birth control for their patients."
