Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Having a Shitty Day? | This Weekend at the Movies »

Friday, March 23, 2007

Can You Afford to Spend $50 a Month on Birth Control?

posted by on March 23 at 17:36 PM

Neither can I. And I sure as hell couldn’t when I was in college, where I relied on the student health center to provide cheap, effective birth control pills for between $10 and $15 a month. I can only assume that these days, when tuition and book costs are higher than ever before and rising, a $500-or-more annual hike in birth control expenses is a bigger burden than ever before. Which is why it’s such terrible news that Congress is eliminating an incentive in the Medicaid rebate law that encouraged companies to provide low-cost contraceptives to college campuses. The change will boost the price of birth control as much as 300 percent. Given that many college students do not have private insurance, and given that many private insurers don’t cover birth control, this is going to have a huge impact on the very college students who can afford it the least.

The change was part of a deficit-reduction measure passed in 2005. Because tons of pregnant college dropouts are really going take care of that problem.

Cross-posted.

RSS icon Comments

1

More broadly though, what about birth control for the uninsured?

Posted by bma | March 23, 2007 6:14 PM
2

Don’t fret. This group will not only provide your birth control but pay you to use it.

http://www.projectprevention.org/

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | March 23, 2007 7:49 PM
3

Some people need to insist their partners use condoms. But college is a good time for women to perfect anal sex, too.

Posted by Joe | March 23, 2007 8:25 PM
4

If that's not cheery enough, how about this?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/23/texas.abortion.reut/index.html

As if $500 is nearly enough. Doesn't this guy know it costs $15k?

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115906/)

Posted by Mike | March 23, 2007 8:47 PM
5

Poor Americans. :(

Wait, you still had to pay when you were in college? Gah.

Posted by Maggie | March 23, 2007 9:26 PM
6

Erica needs birth control?

Discuss.

Posted by Like A Virgin | March 23, 2007 10:00 PM
7

That's bullshit. If you have a job you can afford birth control. $600/year is not that much. You don't have to have sex anyway.

Posted by chris | March 23, 2007 11:00 PM
8

The article says -

"There, he said, women are paying about $22 per month for prescriptions that cost $10 a few months ago. "

then a few paragraphs down -

"Many students could shift to generics but experts said they might still pay twice the previous rate. "

Um, so we're talking about the cost going from $10/month to $20/month? Sorry, but that's hardly an outrage.

I went to a commuter school where no one was rich and most of the kids still spent more than that at Starbucks in an average week.

Posted by what? | March 23, 2007 11:13 PM
9

Commuter school? Like the UW?

$10 vs. $20 was a huge deal when I was in school. I didn't make any money and my folks were kind enough to pay for tuition, but I was strapped for cash most of the time.

Mom insisted I get on the pill during college and I'm glad I listened to her. Never had an unplanned pregnancy.

Posted by nope | March 23, 2007 11:24 PM
10

Chris @ 7, I hope to god you've been looking to Garrison Keillor for hints on appropriate sarcasm. Otherwise, your ignorance is ridiculous.

Posted by Elspeth | March 23, 2007 11:41 PM
11

The rest of us should subsidize college students' sex lives because why? Because, Erica says, if we don't the college students will fuck up their lives and make us pay even more for their mistakes. Is that a threat?

There are two sides to the coin of sexual freedom. The government doesn't keep you from getting your jollies. And you don't ask the government to pay for them.

Posted by David Wright | March 24, 2007 1:52 AM
12

The rest of us should subsidize college students' sex lives because why? Because, Erica says, if we don't the college students will fuck up their lives and make us pay even more for their mistakes. Is that a threat?

There are two sides to the coin of sexual freedom. The government doesn't keep you from getting your jollies. And you don't ask the government to pay for them.

Posted by David Wright | March 24, 2007 1:52 AM
13

The rest of us should subsidize college students' sex lives because why? Because, Erica says, if we don't the college students will fuck up their lives and make us pay even more for their mistakes. Is that a threat?

There are two sides to the coin of sexual freedom. The government doesn't keep you from getting your jollies. And you don't ask the government to pay for them.

Posted by David Wright | March 24, 2007 1:53 AM
14

Sorry for the tripple-post. I got weird server errors.

Posted by David Wright | March 24, 2007 2:12 AM
15

Ah, yes, the straw man argument that was raised at Pandagon last week is raised here by David Wright. Of course, no one is subsidizing "sex lives". It might not have occurred to you, but "sex lives" happen without any government intervention at all. This might come as a surprise to you, but humans fuck. We always have and we always will. Despite all of the grand ideas of spiritual advisers and philosophers, basically that's what we're here on earth to do - perpetuate the species. If something cool happens beyond that, then grand. Sex is the primal drive.

Government isn't subsidizing sex lives. The sex lives happen regardless. Rather, government is providing, at low co-pay costs, a method of preventing pregnancies. Pregnancy can have even graver effects on both the woman and on the health care system. You know the philosophy of HMOs? That an ounce of prevention now wards off extreme costs in the future and, in turn, creates a healthier population? That's what we're addressing here.

Rather than attempt to frame it as funding for sex, try thinking of it as funding for a healthier student population and a way to keep health care costs down.

Posted by B.D. | March 24, 2007 6:56 AM
16

Some male partners should insist on using condoms, it should not be just the woman's responsibility. College students may be smart enough to use BOTH condoms and the pill.

And thanks B.D @15 for the comments.

Posted by Papayas | March 24, 2007 10:25 AM
17

The long term solution here is for women to realize how repulsive men and stop fucking them.

Believe me, sisters, it's far more liberating than the pill.

Posted by Ambivalent about men | March 24, 2007 10:36 AM
18

I like how they claim "cutting costs" to "lower the deficit" when it comes to women's health. That's like trying to empty the ocean with a teacup. They don't seem to have a problem with the budget when it comes to billion $ no-bid contracts for "reconstruction" in Iraq.

How's that going btw?

Posted by Mike in MO | March 24, 2007 12:13 PM
19

I'm a straight man, and I have to say, I agree with Ambivalent @17. I honestly don't understand why all women aren't lesbians. Men are hairy and smelly and ugly, and that's just mentally. I look at guys -- I don't care if it's George Clooney or Johnny Depp or Ron Jeremy -- and I can't see why any woman, or gay man, would be interested. I mean, I'm glad they are, and I guess it's a testament to the power of primal urges over rational thought, but it is a mystery.

Posted by Joe | March 24, 2007 1:08 PM
20

The more people of relative privilege lose their benefits, the faster the real issue of national health care will be addressed. On average I'd bet those women of the same age not in college pay more and have less access to health care across the board. Full priced BC seems only to be around $20 - $50 but if this gets the female college students and their fans excited about health care, that's good.

Posted by Kush | March 24, 2007 5:55 PM
21

What form of birth control costs $50 a month? Forgive the question if it's ignorant but I can't think of a birth control method that would cost that much. I've been on Nuvaring and various pills and neither of those methods hit anything like $50 a month.

Posted by Heidi | March 24, 2007 7:08 PM
22

Eloquent writing aside, Chris and David can go fuck themselves. See? No birth control needed.

Posted by cassie | March 24, 2007 9:35 PM
23

What? If taxpayers don't subsidize college students' birth control then college students won't use birth control?

By the same reasoning, if taxpayers don't subsidize college students' groceries then college student won't eat?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky | March 24, 2007 9:47 PM
24

If you don't eat you die. If you don't use birth control you get pregnant. What don't you understand Stefan?

Posted by Papayas | March 24, 2007 10:10 PM
25

I would not have been able to AFFORD birth control at $45 a month in college (or any other kind of health care that cost that much), Stefan. Therefore, yes, if taxpayers don't subsidize student health care, students will not use health care.

The "we shouldn't subsidize students' sex lives" straw argument has been addressed well above. Let me add, though, that women pay on average 68% more for their health care than men because woman-specific health care costs (gynecologist appointments, birth control) are frequently considered unimportant compared to man-specific vanity drugs (hair growth medication, boner pills) and health care issues that affect women AND men.

Posted by ECB | March 24, 2007 10:11 PM
26

The horse has been farily well flogged by now, but I'll add that as a taxpayer I would love it if birth control was utterly free to all -- and actively promotyed. The cost is a pittance compared to what we end up spending otherwise.

Posted by gnossos | March 24, 2007 11:05 PM
27

THANK YOU gnossos!

Posted by Mike in MO | March 25, 2007 6:08 PM
28

usaa insurance

Posted by usaa insurance | March 25, 2007 7:02 PM
29

Seriously, why is birth control more special than books, rent, food, etc? Why single that out for a subsidy? And why for college students? Why not need-based instead? Plenty of poor women working at Wal-Mart. And if a gal can't afford 'em, why not make her boyfriend/husband pay? After all, if it weren't for him, she wouldn't need the pills.

Posted by mulwana | March 25, 2007 10:42 PM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).