Recordpub.com - Area clinics watching birth control price hike

By Marchae Grair

Record-Courier staff writer

The recent hike of birth control prices has local health clinics and their patients concerned.

Health centers no longer can buy contraceptives to distribute at discount prices because of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which is now being felt by consumers.

The legislation removes incentives for drug companies to provide birth control to many clinics, mostly college health centers, at a low price.

In a domino effect, health clinics have to charge their patients more for contraceptives.

The act went into effect in January of this year, and many health clinics have found ways to avoid its consequences until now.

The DeWeese Health Center for students at Kent State University bought excess amounts of their most popular contraceptives before the price hiked, according to Lori Christopher, nurse manager and nurse practitioner.

"(Patients) have only been slightly affected by it," Christopher said.

The reason patients have only been slightly affected, she said, is the most common birth control prescription we fill is Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, and the health center bought a large stock of it before prices went up. "Once that stock runs out, it will go up to about $50 to $60 a pack," she said.

A pack of typical contraceptives lasts one month, and for many women, doubling or even tripling the price of their birth control may cause them to use a less reliable kind or stop using birth control at all.

The affordability of birth control is a large issue in preventing pregnancy.

"Approximately 75 percent of Planned Parenthood clients in northeast Ohio are at or below 50 percent poverty," said Tara Broderick, Northeast Ohio Planned Parenthood chief executive officer. "We're concerned with providing the health care service to our low income clients."

Larger health organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, are feeling the legislation's effects for hundreds of thousands of patients.

"This impacts one quarter of the Planned Parenthood centers across the country which serves about 500,000 people," Broderick said.

The Ravenna location of Planned Parenthood is one of the subsidized clinics in the area, which permits the clinic to sell contraceptives according to the income and family size of the patient. The Kent Planned Parenthood site does not have the same subsidy.

Both Broderick and Christopher see frustration in their patients when they come in to find their prescription has risen so high.

"The generic forms are about $25 a pack, and the some of the brand names are more expensive," Christopher said. "One of the other (contraceptives) is the NuvaRing. It jumped from $12.50 to $42. Those patients don't have (a cheaper) option."

For most clinics, their main concern is trying to keep control on unwanted pregnancy, even if prevention is at a heavier price.

"Most women want to have kids over five years of their life," Broderick said. "Even if they are married, women spend the other thirty or more years trying to prevent pregnancy. Birth control is a very normal part of life."

Christopher is concerned about the unintended consequences this birth control price increase will have on college students.

"I hope this doesn't indirectly increase unwanted pregnancy," Christopher said. "Most colleges kids don't have a large income or the resources to care for a child."

Planned Parenthood is researching alternatives to save money for low-income clients, including college students.

"Planned Parenthood is looking into making their own generic brand of contraceptives," Broderick said.