Kenyon Collegian

Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: News

The Student Health Center tripled its oral contraceptive price on Aug. 27, 2007, said Acting Director of the Student Health Center Rebecca Metcalf. According to Metcalf, the change is due to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which was passed by U.S. Congress in December 2005 and became effective in January 2007. A month's supply of the birth control pills now costs Kenyon students $15, up from the $5 they previously paid. According to Metcalf, "clinic-pack pricing"-in which pharmaceutical companies provide certain customers with the name-brand drug for a low price-accounted for the former inexpensive price. The Deficit Reduction Act made college and university health centers ineligible for clinic-pack pricing, said Metcalf. Clinic-pack pricing is still available to entities like Planned Parenthood, who sometimes tack on an operating cost that increases the drug's low price. According to Metcalf, the local family planning center uses clinic-pack pricing but sells each month's supply for $12. Oral contraceptive prices did not increase until the beginning of this semester because the Health Center bought the contraceptives in advance. Although the American College Health Association-of which Kenyon is a member-predicted that the bill would never go into effect, Kenyon prepared for the price increase when it became inevitable, said Metcalf. "I worked hard all summer … researching and trying to get us a good price for contraceptives here," said Metcalf. "Fifteen dollars is a really good price compared to what it might have been." Even with the 300 percent increase, students buying at the Health Center pay far less than retail price, which can be $50 per month at CVS. The Center still sells at cost and does not profit from contraceptive sales; the only difference, said Metcalf, is that without clinic-pack pricing only generic brands are available at such a low price. The generics offered by the Health Center are modeled on Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, Desogen and Cyclessa brands. According to Metcalf, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is "receptive to our cause" and plans to sponsor a bill that would make clinic-pack priced contraceptives available at all college and university health centers. "That's why we need grassroots efforts of the students writing to Senator Sherrod Brown," she said. "Bush could reverse this with one sweep of his pen, but he chooses not to because of his abstinence policy."

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