Birth Control Prices Set to Rise for Low Income Women. You Can Help...

[Triana]

(This is from a friend...)

Hi, this is Cristen and isn't Planned Parenthood's official e-mail, but I have culled elements of it. Birth control prices will go from $5 to $50 a month for low income women. Would you contact your representative, either independently, or through this link?

Family planning is useless if it isn't realistically available.

"Congress's recently passed law has made the price of birth
control skyrocket to an unaffordable level for millions of
women. Last week, you and thousands of others sent letters to
Congress asking them to fix this mistake by supporting the
Prevention Through Affordable Access Act.

But members of Congress are still dragging their feet. There is
no excuse for this delay. Millions of women need our help today.

http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/2007_bcprice/forward/xk3xds4qde7ntd?source=2007_bcprice_p

Your friends need to hear the whole story: Last year's Congress made a technical error writing a new law, and the cost of birth control in many clinics is rising to almost 900 percent what it was just months ago. Women who were paying $5 to $10 per month are now paying $40 to $50 for birth control. For the college students and low-income women who will be affected by this cost hike, that's no small matter.

[napi21]

1. What was the wording in this law that made this happen?

I clicked on the link but there was no explaination there either. What could they possibly have done that made the cost skyrocket?

[Triana]

2. I'm not sure and...

...I rather doubt that it even WAS an "error".

[Breeze54]

3. The Federal Deficit Reduction Act in 2005

Bill would reduce the elevated cost of birth control

The support of both of Oregon's senators could help bill reach the Senate for a vote

By: Jill Kimball | News Reporter
Issue date: 11/20/07 Section: News

http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2007/11/20/News/Bill-Would.Reduce.The.Elevated.Cost.Of.Birth.Control-3112111.shtml

Snip-->

the Federal Deficit Reduction Act in 2005, universities no longer qualified for the discounted
birth control products they had previously received. When the act was put into effect in January,
birth control prices skyrocketed, increasing more than threefold.

"More than three million college students and roughly 750,000 low-income women who access birth
control services are affected by this," said Rose Kelsch at Planned Parenthood in Eugene.

The good news for birth control users is prices may soon be diminished. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
recently signed on as a co-sponsor of the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act, a stand-alone
bill that would lower prices.

[RB TexLa]

4. You can see it on the chart on page 36

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7028/s1932conf.pdf

additional cost sharing for drugs down $150B for 2008.

[Breeze54]

5. The drug companies have to pay more to the states for medicaid

and so, they are no longer able to offer reduced prices on Birth control and other drugs.

Yeah, right!! :sarcasm:

FUCK BUSH!!!! :grr:

-------------

Students protest contraceptive hike

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5303119.html

The price increases, which put brand-name oral contraceptives at about $35 per month, up
from $10 last year, resulted from a change in the Medicaid rebate law. It now discourages
pharmaceutical companies from offering discounts on medications to college health centers.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which went into effect in January, requires companies
that sell discounted drugs to pay more to participate in Medicaid. It does not target
contraceptives specifically, but that's where it has hit students the hardest.

[napi21]

6. This pricing is total BS! I didn't work for a drug company, but I did

wprk for a vitamin manufacturer for 114 years. he cost of poppin a pill is extremely low! I know we made a "brean name" multi vitamin at a cost of less than $1.00 and sold it for $15.99. I was the director of accounting so I knew all the costs.

The biggest expense to pharmaceutical companies is ADVERTISING! Just look at how many pills are pushed during your evening of watching TV.

I don't know what the solution is, because I don't like price controls, but lining the pockets of the drug execs is the real problem.

[Breeze54]

7. It's all part of the neocons plans to privatize everything!

Prices go Up, when they privatize! :grr:

[JCMach1]

8. In the rest of the world all birth control products are within a 5-15$

range...

The rest is pharmaceutical greed in the US market!

[Triana]

9. Youbetcha

I hope everyone who replied is writing their reps?

[donsu]

10. if you can't afford - make the man wear a condom or no sex

had a relative so low on money, she carefully washed the condom for reuse