With the rise in prices of prescription contraceptives in university health centers all over the country, the Cal State Long Beach Student Health Center keeps costs for students low and is planning future ways to keep them affordable.
Change in federal law from the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 ended the discount prices that drug manufacturers offered to university health centers around the nation. According to Kathy Chen, a pharmacist in the Student Health Center, the state contract for low-price contraceptives for CSULB expired in December of last year.
“Many of the policy changes in the DRA would shift costs to beneficiaries and have the effect of limiting health care coverage and access to services for low-income beneficiaries,” according to a document from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
Some brand-name birth-control pills sold to health centers rose from $5 to $48, said Chen. Despite the rise in costs that the university will have to pay, the health center has not raised the cost of contraceptives to students.
CSULB has tried methods like buying contraceptives from San Diego State University at a low price to try and keep prices manageable. Lawmakers and pharmacists alike are trying to change current legislation.
“Next year the legislation of discounts for health centers might change,” said Chen, who along with other CSU pharmacists had a department general service meeting in November to try and bring back the contract that offered contraceptive discounts.
In the spring, the Student Health Center will try to find other ways to help female students continue to pay low-cost birth control if the current discounted supply it has runs out.
According to Chen, some of the methods to help keep the costs low include encouraging female students to sign up for the “Family Pack” program, which discounts pap smears, STD checks, breast exams, birth control and condoms. Another includes offering female students, who might not be able to afford the higher prices, the option of switching to more generic brands of birth control.
Other universities, like Cal State Dominguez Hills, have also tried to keep costs for students low despite the higher costs from drug manufacturers.
Clyde Fugami, a pharmacist for the CSUDH Student Health Center, said price changes have had a serious effect on their center in the past six months. In an attempt to offset the rising prices, a more generic product for the popular Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo was also made available to accommodate student demands, said Fugami.
The rise in prices could seriously affect female students on campus who depend on the low-cost contraceptives. If current legislation isn’t reversed, some think that the methods student health centers around the nation are using might not be enough to keep costs low, and the prices would again rise.
