Hiking prices of birth control pills at student health centers have raised a serious concern among the health authorities as this might lead children to less preferred contraceptives or stop using them altogether.
Hugh Jessop, executive director of the health center at Indiana University said,
it’s a tremendous problem for our students because not every student has a platinum card. Some of our students have two jobs, have children. To increase this by 100 percent or more overnight, which is what happened, is a huge shock to them and to their system.
The change is the outcome of a chain reaction started by a 2005 deficit-reduction bill that focused on Medicaid, the main federal health insurance program for the poor. College health authorities are of the view that they had little idea how the bill would affect them.
Before the change, pharmaceutical companies usually sold medications at deep discounts to a range of health care providers, including colleges. With contraceptives, one motivation was attracting customers who would stay with their products for years.
But in its 2005 bill, Congress changed that. Now the discounts to colleges mean drug manufacturers have to pay more to participate in Medicaid. Consequent upon which, fewer companies would now offer the pills at discount prices.
Many colleges kept prices low for a few months by buying in bulk before the new law took effect but have now run through their stockpile and started increasing prices. Also, many students fill the prescriptions quarterly so are only now seeing the increase.
Some students asserted they doubted the price increases would dissuade many students from buying contraceptives.
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