An unplanned pregnancy can be expensive, but the price of preventing one is starting to catch up.
Birth control prices at ASU are up about 200 percent from the same time last year due to the Medicaid Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, said Eric Anger, campus health service pharmacy manager.
Anger said that once the ASU pharmacy began to feel the ramifications of the act, which turned ASU Student Health Service from a public health clinic to a private health center, the prices for brand name and generic drugs increased.
"They took away [the discount] and increased the price to just lower than retail," Anger said.
Medicaid is a federally funded health insurance program that typically aids low-income elderly and disabled people, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Until January, Medicaid did not have a direct role on college campuses. Instead the pharmaceutical companies sold their products to clinics and college campuses at heavily subsidized prices, Anger said.
But since the Medicaid Deficit Reduction Act turned ASU Health Service into a private health center, it no longer receives the discounted price that other clinics receive, he said.
Samara Link, a journalism junior, said she has been using oral contraceptives, like her current prescription for Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, for more than 10 years.
"I have Blue Cross Blue Shield coverage, and I don't know what they cover, but I pay around $40 a month at Costco," Link said. "[That] seems very expensive to me."
According to the ASU Campus Health Service pharmacy price index, the ASU pharmacy currently charges $45 per pill-pack for Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo.
But for low-income students, there are other, cheaper options still available.
Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics still receive prescriptions at subsidized costs and can therefore offer prescriptions at a lower cost.
According to Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona's Web site, patients who qualify for discounts may receive their treatments and contraception at lower or no cost, thanks to federal funding from the Title X program.
Planned Parenthood offers lowered prices on birth control and health services on a sliding fee scale determined by how much the patient can afford, according to the Web site.
But students don't have to go off campus to find affordable forms of birth control. The ASU pharmacy still offers generic forms of common birth control brands when available, Anger said.
These prices are comparable to insurance co-pays for the same prescription, he added."Depending what you get, there are still generics out there that are only $20 — the majority are only $20," Anger said. "But if they want to get brand medication or they have to get brand medication, then by all means, they have to get [health] insurance."
But ASU does not accept outside health insurance for prescription coverage.
Anger said this policy allowed students to pay the same amount for prescriptions, to prevent discrimination against those without insurance or with high co-pays.
Jennifer Kucharski, a film and media studies freshman, said she buys her birth control from a local Walgreens, because they accept her father's health insurance, which still covers her.
"It costs $40 on the dot each month," Kucharski said about her LoEstrin 24 prescription.
In order to prevent unwanted pregnancies in sexual relationships, contraception is a necessary tool, but its high costs can be a burden to both partners, Link said.
"It's so frustrating how expensive [birth control] is, because it's a lot more expensive to have a baby," Link said. "And being in school, you want to be able to plan."
Reach the reporter at: brittany.mccall@asu.edu.
