Birth Control Rant- probably best for only the women to read...
 

So the other birth control thread is in dating & relationships... but I think this particular post is more general.

Just went to get my prescription refilled. Regular OTC... been taking it for about 5 years now. When I first stated taking it, was awesome, only like $8 a pack. Then last year when the patent ran out, went up to like $22 a pack. Blah. Switched pills, to OTC-lo, had problems with it so went back to regular OTC.

Went in today to have it refilled, it's FOURTY NINE DOLLARS FOR ONE PACK!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is insane!

Thank god they had a generic, which was still $21 a pack.

My health care doesn't cover it.

This is a crime!!! :mad:

When it's HotDamn for president, birth control will be free.

Really, don't you wonder why it's so expensive? And entire YEAR of birth control is still less expensive than ONE prenatal visit.

Not to knock having kids -- or prenatal visits! -- but you'd think they'd make it EASY to avoid getting pregnant if that's what you want to do.

oh. PS, usually if you ask the doctor about it, he/she'll have free samples he/she can give you. Even if your prescription copay is $25, if you get two, that's $50 savings. Thumbs up.

Can you get it through student health? My friends at other schools do that and it's about $10.

that's where I was. It used to be $8 there, then it went up when the patent ran out. They apparently don't make clinic packs anymore, according to the pharmacist, and that's what student health would use. This must've happened within the last few months... I usually get 3 packs at a time, and 3 months ago they weren't 50 bucks!

I think it might just be Student Health, too. Maybe part of it's covered under the student fees, or the pill companies strike deals with the student health orgs. at big universities (would make sense. If I'm student health and want to give my students a break by making the pill cheap, I'd be willing to strike a deal and only really deal with 4 or 5 manufacturers.)

Mine was $6 at NC State, and like $10 at VCU. Of course not anymore. :( And the patent didn't run out on mine.

Maybe try PP? Our insurance is pretty good about mine - I get 3/$20.

Def go to Planned Parenthood or Family Planning. Although if they're not making clinic packs anymore at all, it might be the same deal there.

You should be able to get it through mail order which is lots cheaper - $50 for 3 months worth.

(33girl shudders at the thought of OB/GYN services performed by her student health center, and cries remembering the $2.50 pill packs.)

[soapbox]

What really ticks me off is that most insurance plans won't cover the cost of (responsible) birth control, but WILL cover Viagra!!

And even better, I know a couple who are functionally illiterate and on public assistance - and their medical assistance paid for them to be artifically inseminated, not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES!!!!

Seriously, there's somebody asleep at the switch when it comes to the cost of birth control!!

[/soapbox]

i wonder if anything comes about with this male birth control pill that they are testing, if that will be covered under insurance better?

Haha, it seems like now every visit to the student health center at Clarion is an OB/GYN one. First question, without fail, are you pregnant? Got a blister? Are you pregnant? Broke your arm? ARe you pregnant?

My best friend from law school was clerking for Judge Lasnik in USDC in the Western District of Washington when the case of Erickson v. Bartell Drugs came before him. She helped prepare the opinion granting summary judgment in favor of plaintiff, a woman who sued for sex discrimination b/c Bartell's insurance specifically excluded many drugs used by women including contraceptive devices, drugs prescribed for weight reduction, infertility drugs, smoking cessation drugs, dermatologicals for cosmetic purposes, growth hormones, and experimental drugs while covering almost all drugs used by men. You can read the opinion here: http://www.covermypills.org/latest/Decision.html.

I might be completely wrong but I remember hearing that Congress was trying to pass a law that made it illegal for insurance companies to cover Viagra but not BC Pills. Is that true and, if so, does anyone know what became of it?

Luckily, my insurance does cover most of it so I pay $20 for 3 through my mail-order service. While I was in school, I went through student health to get it and I think I was paying about $12 per pack which is kinda expensive. I've heard that they increased their prices this year. A friend of mine is on Yasmin (one of the most expensive pills) and she pays $25 per pack at Student Health. :eek:

Does anyone have concrete proof of an insurance company that covers Viagra, but doesn't cover BC? I've heard that, but haven't found a single insurance carrier that admits to that. I'm not sure if it's a viable fact or an urban legend.

My insurance has always covered BC, and here I pay around $7/month. At some of the pharmacies around my parents' house in Florida, it was $13/month under the exact same insurer. I think I'd pay any price--NOT getting pregnant is a really high priority for me.

Do you guys do mail order through your insurance or is there some site you can go to?

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.

I used to get 3 months of BC at a time, and now I only get one. I broke up with my boyfriend and I just stopped the pill. Too much time, effort, money... I would never start taking it on time because I had to go into the pharmacy within 7 days of the refill date and not a day sooner. If I could get it 3 months at a time I'd probably still be on it, or if I had an RX mail service, but as it stands it's too much trouble for a boyfriendless girl.

Holy shit, that's the funniest thing I've seen all day.

Hee hee... the running joke at my alma mater was that, if you went to the med center, they would ask you if you were pregnant... even if you were male.

I get my Ortho-Tricyclen for free from Planned Parenthood. I'm a college student w/no insurance & I make pitiful wages so I get an entire years supply for free. Sadly, this will stop once I get married in December & I'll have to start paying. Damn.

Lucky you. With insurance, I pay $35 for the shot, and a $25 copay to actually get it injected. That's only 5 bucks less than it cost to pay out of pocket before I got insurance.

You didn't have to have insurance before you enrolled in college?

Every school I've attended, even for the summer, required a certain level of coverage--either your own insurance or theirs--before you could enroll.

Whether or not your BC is covered also varies by state.

mine too....in fact I have an ex who's freshman roommate really was asked if he was pregnant...come to think of it, I think he (the roommate) hadn't dated at all at the time either.....

as to BCP, I'm just annoyed that I can't get the whole year at once like I used to......still much better than having to go every month, but still....