UH students are promoting the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act to lower prices in university health centers across the country since birth control costs increased last summer.
"In order to build successful careers and families at a time that’s right for them, students need access to affordable birth control," said Meggin Baxter, public affairs field manager for Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas.
The Federal Deficit Reduction Act, signed by President Bush in 2005 and enacted in January 2007, ended the birth control discounts offered to university health centers and clinics nationwide by raising costs of manufacturer prices. This caused an increase in prices to consumers, college students and the uninsured.
Before the FDRA passed, students could purchase certain brands for $10 per month, but once the legislation went into effect in January 2007, the price jumped to $35, said Kizzy Steward-Judie, chief pharmacist at the UH Health Center. The price increased again in Jan. 2008 to $40 – an aggregate 400 percent increase in cost for students.
Planned Parenthood is working with student organization VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood to have Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, co-sponsor the bill that, if passed, would provide affordable birth control for women.
The group will have a rally from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday beside the Philip Guthrie Hoffman Hall to encourage students to call Hutchison in support of the bill.
In 1990, Congress passed the Medicaid Anti-Discriminatory Drug Price and Patient Restoration Act, which ensured Medicaid recipients received the lowest drug prices in the marketplace, Baxter said.
It also enabled pharmaceutical companies to offer cheaper drugs to charitable organizations and clinics.
Congress passed the DRA because manufacturers were suspected of offering nominal pricing to entities beyond those originally intended by the 1990 bill, Baxter said. The result is driving up costs for about 500,000 to 750,000 women in America, she said.
Media production senior Alison Haines said taking birth control makes life a little less uncertain, even though she is married.
"Though there are other methods just as effective as far as preventing birth, they may not have the recent added bonuses of fewer periods, menstrual cramps, or anything else that we females endure, and my birth control definitely subtracts stress from my life with these added benefits," Haines said.
The cost at the UH Health Center is less than Haines’ previous health insurance, but the cost at the center has increased since the passing of the DRA.
The UH Health Center is selling Cyclessa and Desogen at $25, the same price for the generic equivalent, as long as supplies last. The center is also offering female condoms as another affordable option, although they are not very popular, said Steward-Judie, who oversees operations in the pharmacy daily.
Steward-Judie said she sees no benefits to the current legislation’s consequences: an increase of unwanted pregnancies and loss of patients for the Health Center. She recommends that students take a more active approach and voice their concerns to state representatives.
"Birth control is basic health care," Baxter said. "These high prices mean the difference between putting food on the table and buying prescription medication. The best way to build healthy families is to put prevention first. The DRA does the opposite."
The unfortunate consequence of fewer students and uninsured women taking birth control is the increase of abortions and emergency contraceptives, political science sophomore Diane Aguirre, president of VOX at UH, said.
Oral contraceptives not only prevent pregnancy, but they also help regulate the menstrual cycle, alleviate severe premenstrual syndrome and can help treat diseases, Aguirre said. Illnesses such as polycystic ovary syndrome, where cysts build over released eggs, causing irregular menstruation; and endometriosis, a condition in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus and other areas, can cause tumors, pain and infertility if not treated, according to www.womenshealth.gov.
"Women will have to use more affordable, but less effective birth control to prevent pregnancies," Aguirre said about the hike in prices. "It could also lead to an increase in the number of women who leave school because of unintended pregnancies."
