2008 Woodie Awards
Editorial: Congress screws college students
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Editorial/Opinion
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11/29/07 - Beginning this January, female students will face a choice: find an additional $18 to buy birth control pills, find an alternative method of contraception or stop having sex. As it seems unlikely students will choose the third option, Congress needs to fix a bungled piece of legislation that took college health centers off an exemption list.
The problems started last year when Congress ordered a study into a rebate program that allows pharmaceutical companies to provide discounted medicine without providing rebates to states in which Medicaid reimbursed the price of the medication. Afraid of abuse in the system, Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that took colleges out of the law.
Later, congressmen chalked it up to an "oversight" and a "mistake." Well, Congress, it's time to fix the problem. Many college students are already living on tight budgets and an increase of $18 might not sound much to certain people's wallets, but add in the cost of tuition, rent and books and suddenly an extra $216 a year becomes significant.
And the costs are more than monetary. Students who choose other, less reliable methods of birth control besides the pill risk becoming pregnant and the responsibilities that come with that. According WebMD.com, using condoms as one's sole form of contraceptive can lead to a 3 to 14 percent failure rate. On the flip side, birth control pills only have a .1 to 5 percent failure rate. A simple pill can help students prevent a decision no one wants to make, assuming they can obtain the pill.
It's clear pharmaceutical companies, with their billions of dollars in profits, can afford to offer lower prices to college and community health centers.
If the drug industry truly cared about the health of young Americans, they would quickly establish a program to provide discounted contraceptives to college students outside of the government realm.
Since that's unlikely to happen, Congress needs to get its act together. The usual slow pace of legislation approval doesn't bode well for the prospects of restoring the exemption.
Students can help push Congress along by writing or calling their senators and congressmen. If an office receives even a few dozen letters on one topic, chances are someone will start paying attention. And there are few more important things to pay attention to than this country's health.
The problems started last year when Congress ordered a study into a rebate program that allows pharmaceutical companies to provide discounted medicine without providing rebates to states in which Medicaid reimbursed the price of the medication. Afraid of abuse in the system, Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that took colleges out of the law.
Later, congressmen chalked it up to an "oversight" and a "mistake." Well, Congress, it's time to fix the problem. Many college students are already living on tight budgets and an increase of $18 might not sound much to certain people's wallets, but add in the cost of tuition, rent and books and suddenly an extra $216 a year becomes significant.
And the costs are more than monetary. Students who choose other, less reliable methods of birth control besides the pill risk becoming pregnant and the responsibilities that come with that. According WebMD.com, using condoms as one's sole form of contraceptive can lead to a 3 to 14 percent failure rate. On the flip side, birth control pills only have a .1 to 5 percent failure rate. A simple pill can help students prevent a decision no one wants to make, assuming they can obtain the pill.
It's clear pharmaceutical companies, with their billions of dollars in profits, can afford to offer lower prices to college and community health centers.
If the drug industry truly cared about the health of young Americans, they would quickly establish a program to provide discounted contraceptives to college students outside of the government realm.
Since that's unlikely to happen, Congress needs to get its act together. The usual slow pace of legislation approval doesn't bode well for the prospects of restoring the exemption.
Students can help push Congress along by writing or calling their senators and congressmen. If an office receives even a few dozen letters on one topic, chances are someone will start paying attention. And there are few more important things to pay attention to than this country's health.