Price of sexual health increases on campus
Students across college campuses are paying a higher price for birth control. Thanks to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, manufacturers are not allowed to provide discounted medication to specialty groups such as students.
Previously, agencies such as college campuses and Planned Parenthood received birth control for discounted prices.
Now, manufacturers are forced to offer the same discount to all federal and state programs. The result? Now students, instead of the government, are dishing out more money for the medications.
On campus, prices of some popular contraceptives like Ortho Tri-cyclen, Ortho Tri-cyclen Lo and Desogen have increased anywhere from 50 percent to 150 percent. The price of NuvaRing has risen over 200 percent on campus. Although the prices on campuses are still lower than at a drugstore, the difference in cost has become much less.
Some students chose to switch to generic forms of the medicine. But often a generic form of certain medications is not available. Also, generic pills may affect the student differently than the brand name.
Considering most college students are on limited budgets, forcing college students to pay more for medication out of their own pockets is unfair. Some say that birth control is only used to prevent pregnancy and there are cheaper, alternative ways to achieve that. Birth control, however, is not only used for a contraceptive. It is also used to treat a variety of medical and psychological conditions, such as acne and depression. For women who take birth control because of hormonal problems, birth control is vital to carrying out a normal healthy life.
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was implemented as a way to save money, but at the cost of students’ health. There should be other ways to cut costs without forcing an increase in the price of a product that attends to health. The government made the wrong choice; health is not an issue to cut corners on.
