Birth control not cheap at college
By Stephanie Irwin Gottschlich, Staff Writer
College students will continue to see price hikes for prescription birth control at their campus health clinics this fall in the wake of new federal pricing rules issued last week.
The decision from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services applies the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which removed incentives for drug companies to provide deep discounts on birth control to college health clinics.
The decision mostly affects college health clinics with their own pharmacies, where prices for prescription contraceptives have doubled and tripled since drug companies stopped the discounts.
Some college health officials worry that students will switch to less reliable, cheaper birth control, use pills that aren't necessarily the best for their bodies, or simply stop using it.
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