For a long time, women like Emily White a bouncy, blonde, year-old college student were absolutely irresistible to pharmaceutical companies. The drug manufacturers weren't interested in her brains. Rather, this was what you might call an opportunistic attraction based solely on sex and money.
It suited everyone just fine. Here's how it worked: Pharmaceutical companies offered phenomenal discounts on contraception to college and university health centers. In turn, the pharmaceutical companies got a chance to hook the young 'uns when they were becoming sexually active, and hopefully milk them for the full price of that contraception later. Everyone was happy.
Then she found out the health center wasn't simply trying to gouge her. Prices were going up at university and college health centers across the nation, thanks to a Medicaid bill that Congress passed in Locally, UCCS and Colorado College health centers have been bombarded with women who can no longer afford their preferred birth control. White's roommate, Nikki Caravella, says the new high prices might mean the difference between her staying on contraception or taking her chances.
White didn't fully understand what had happened in Washington, but she did know that only pay from a new job a gig at a sporting-goods store would help her buy her birth control. Cause and effect Like many young women, White is a little embarrassed to talk about sex. Her dad still thinks she's a virgin, and she's not sure she'd be comfortable using her parents' health plan to purchase birth control.
Besides, she's not even sure their plan covers that. She could switch to a cheaper, generic brand of contraception, but she doesn't want to do that. White doesn't think the increased price in birth control will decrease sexual activity on campus. She thinks many women will make whatever sacrifices they can to continue buying their contraception. In , Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act, with the intention of cutting back on wasteful Medicaid spending.
