College students to pay more for birth control pills (AP/CNN) {Medicare changes}

[eppur_se_muova]

(AP) -- Millions of college students are suddenly facing sharply higher prices for birth control, prompting concerns among health officials that some will shift to less preferred contraceptives or stop using them altogether.

Prices for oral contraceptives, or birth control pills, are doubling and tripling at student health centers, the result of a complex change in the Medicaid rebate law that essentially ends an incentive for drug companies to provide deep discounts to colleges.

"It's a tremendous problem for our students because not every student has a platinum card," said Hugh Jessop, executive director of the health center at Indiana University.

There, he said, women are paying about $22 per month for prescriptions that cost $10 a few months ago. "Some of our students have two jobs, have children," Jessop said. "To increase this by 100 percent or more overnight, which is what happened, is a huge shock to them and to their system."

At some schools women could see prices rise several hundred dollars per year.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/23/colleges.contraceptives.ap/index.html

[mudesi]

1. Makes sense

College students are much more likely to engage in more sexual intercourse in a relatively shorter time span with less intent to produce offspring than older people. Thus the demand for birth control pills is higher for college students than it is for others.

A "good" corporation will therefore use price discrimination to maximize profits.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. Huh?

The students were getting heavy discounts. Government rules made too costly to continue.

[Solo_in_MD]

2. Law of unintended consequences...one more time

There are time I wish pols would quit social engineering through taxes and government programs. This is one example of many