I think you are referring to the EPICC -- The Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act. I don't think it ever passed.

My insurance doesn't cover more than 3 refills without a new script so I have a few scripts written at a time so I can just go to the phramacy and get my pills when I need them rather than have to call the office and have them call the pharmacy etc etc. So 2 weekends ago I'm at the BFs and am trying to have the script filled. The girl takes one look at the date (2/2/04) and says, "This looks like it could have been 2/2/03 and that's close to two years old so I can't fill it." I ask nicely if she could just this once since I'm supposed to start taking them tomorrow but no she says "Well if you just skip one day and take two on Monday you should be fine" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Small chance or no chance don't tell me that crap.

She was probably annoyed cause it was a snowy weekend and she had no one to snuggle with and HA I did!

i do mine through my insurance. they have a website to submit it through. usually you have to ask your doctor for a prescription to mail in since they do it in three month supplies and not one month supplies.

Thanks! I knew there was some kind of Act that they wanted to pass in Congress but I couldn't think of the name.

Lil' Hannah- My insurance company has a mail-order prescription service that I go through. My doc writes a prescription for a 12 month supply and I mail that prescription into my mail-order prescription service. They then send me 3 packs at a time until my prescription runs out.

I think this is what ours does also - my mom orders it so I'm not for sure though. ;) I know I get 3-month supplies at a time.

Back when I was on BCP, I went through Planned Parenthood and it was fairly reasonable -- I think $15 per pack for Desogen. Because of my insurance, I could only get pills one month at a time, though, which was rather inconvenient.

But now, I don't have to worry about BC.

bc pills
 

back when i was on birth control pills, i successfully argued with the insurance company and got them to cover the cost, minus my co-pay. the logic i used was that it cost them a lot less to supplement the cost of my birth control pills that to pay for pre-natal visits and health care for a newborn. it might be worth you time to try.

Yes, I tripped over his giant wang after he impregnated me. That's how I broke my arm.

I work in the administrative suite of the health clinic at my school.

The story is that JOM Pharmaceticals (previously known as Ortho)
the company that makes OTC, OTC lo, Ortho Evra, etc. has discontinued clinc packs of the pill. I am not sure of the reason why but i can find out......regardless our pharmacy now is using another company "Pharmedix" to order the clinic packs of OTC, OTC lo in order to keep costs the same. (they are currently 12 dollars) they were 10 but the prices were raised and then eventually discontinued.

If you are trying to get your pills cheap and you were on the discontinued clinic packs, ask your pharmacist at school or the admin office about looking into other pharmecutical companies such as pharmedix, i know we researched and they are currently the cheapest (i think for generic)

Also, these companies sometimes do promotional things and grants where they will discount certain pills for a certain amount of time. Alesse was on such a plan not too long ago.. but again these are all up to the health services dept. at your school.

anyways thats the story from the university health services angle..

My BC is $10 a month, for the generic OTC. Thankfully my insurance covers most of it, because even though it's generic, it's still expensive!

Also, I'm lucky because my neighbor is an OB/GYN RN, and she told me she'd get me some packs from the office, if need be.


On a little bit of a side note:
I never understood the idea of condemning birth control, whether it be condoms, pills, etc. because of religious beliefs. People are still going to have sex... Why not make sure we don't over populate the world while we're at it??

I'm totally weirded out by BC pills.

I hope alternative medicine comes out with their version one day.

I have Kaiser (which is a pain in itself) and they cover BCPs and Depo shots are free. (At least they were on my mom's plan... I don't know about now since I have benefits via work.)

I pay $5 for generic drugs and $15 for name brand. Since Alesse is name brand I get 3 packs for $15.

However back in my Planned Parenthood days, there was some California State clause that could let you hide from your insurance company that you were going to Planned Parenthood and the state would in turn, pay for your services, scripts, etc. Those were the days... but the facilities were kind of shady. That's kind of why I stopped going there and avoided my student health center.

At one of my former jobs in VA, BCP was NOT covered by insurance. (Which is BS in my opinion). I had to go to the health dept where they did it on a sliding scale. $56 per year was the max for 13 months of BCP, the exam and everything. I had to pay the max but I was happy to part with $56 and had no shame sitting with the so called "welfare" women. I am glad that the pharmacist at Bartell Drugs took the company to court. BCP should be covered.

My job is union now and my copay for my generic desogen is $5 PER MONTH. (I used to get 3 months for $5). I am not complaining at ALL!

Jill- VA is still ridiculous when it comes to BC and anything related to that. Of course, I've never had to pay out-of-pocket for it because of my military bennies (and the prenatal stuff is covered, too), but I know my sister was paying ridiculous amounts for her pills. The only thing I can think of for women in this area is to go to a free clinic. Before I got my permanent incapacitated ID, that was going to have to be my way of doing things...

Your employer is the one to complain to when the BC isn't covered. They have the option of choosing riders that cover BC, but they don't want to put out the extra money most of the time. My HMO policy comes each year with a bunch of riders attached to it, including one for BC.