Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Colleges and universities across the country are raising prices for hormonal contraception in the wake of a December announcement that because of the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act, student health services can no longer receive a discount on hormonal contraception.
There used to be a financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to sell contraceptives to charitable groups like college clinics at a deep discount, because they would then get an exemption on Medicaid pricing. This effectively worked as a reimbursement. The Deficit Reduction Act eliminated these reimbursements as part of a program to slow the growth in spending on Medicare and Medicaid.
According to Director of Health Services Linda Echols, “Drug companies notified us in early December that the part that affected colleges and universities would go into affect on January 1, 2007. They limited purchase of supplies from that point on to the end of the December.”
Currently, students can purchase birth control pills at Worth for $7 a cycle and the Nuvaring for $10.00. Echols reported that “I purchase over 1000 cycles and I assume that if I carried a wider variety [of pills], I might dispense more. However, since many insurance companies have drug coverage and cover generics, more women can get their pills for $5-$15 although the brands and Nuvaring mostly cost $25-50 if not formulary.”
Sexual Health Counselor Annie Fredrickson ’07 pointed out that “our survey data shows that about 62% of Swatties who use contraception rely on a hormonal method,” and speculated that it was popular “because it is simple, effective, and woman-controlled.” Students will be able to purchase birth control at the current prices at least through the end of the semester, but the future is uncertain.
In order to deal with the impact in the short-term, said Echols, “we plan to decrease the number of cycles graduates can purchase so that we have enough pills to get us started in the fall.” Graduates used to be able to purchase up to a year’s worth of hormonal birth control when leaving Swarthmore.
Echols is “pretty sure that we’ll have enough of some pills through the fall semester.” That said, “Our supply of rings is more of an issue since those purchases were severely restricted in December… the Nuvarings will run out before then.” Other colleges and universities have already had to raise prices, in some cases charging two or three times as much as what they used to.
Students expressed concern about the potential rise in prices. Sexual Health Counselor Jessica Langston ’08 wrote in an e-mail that “though many students are sexually active, not all of them have the resources to afford full-price birth control. This is especially true when you take into consideration the fact that some students’ parents are not aware of their sexual activity, so the money for birth control comes out of the student’s own pocket… I think the fear is that some students would stop buying birth control if the price got too high, and instead would rely more on less effective methods like the morning after pill.”
Fredrickson wrote in an e-mail that “if a student finds they can no longer afford what Worth has but still wants a method of birth control that they control, I would recommend getting fitted for a diaphragm or cervical cap, which costs more than birth control initially but lasts up to two years, or using a female condom.” She advised against fertility awareness, or “the rhythm method,” because “it is only effective for women with extremely predictable, regular menstrual cycles, and even then it is still less reliable than any of the methods listed above.”
Sarah Ifft ’09, secretary of pro-choice group VOX, explained that low-cost birth control “is incredibly important because it gives students a great deal of security, and more power over their own sexuality… reproductive rights are frequently related to socioeconomic issues, partially because the cost of birth control can be prohibitive for some women. I think it’s very important that Swarthmore continue to serve its students by offering low-cost birth control.” Since VOX promotes equal access to all contraceptives, Ifft added that the issue is something VOX could consider doing a campaign on in the future.
Echols is working hard to secure cheap contraception for the future, but “I haven’t been successful so far in getting pills cheaper than 15.00 a cycle… I’m still trying but I may not know if one proposal, the best, will come to fruition until June, the end of a fiscal year. I haven’t give up hope yet.”
