October 26, 2007
The Pill holds steady
On Oct. 18, 2007 an article in the Montana Kaimin titled “Students protest birth control costs,” implied that Planned Parenthood’s contraceptive prices were going to increase to $50 a cycle for our patients in Missoula.
Planned Parenthood of Missoula is a clinic that provides publicly supported family planning services. This means we are eligible for federal funding that requires us to provide annual exams, pap tests, clinical breast exams, and birth control on a sliding fee scale. Being a publicly supported family planning clinic allows us to buy our birth control at a reduced rate and this is not affected by the nominal pricing problem that Congress needs to fix.
However, some of our clinics (Kalispell, Billings Heights, and all 8 of our rural Planned Parenthood Without Walls clinics) and the Curry Health Center are not publicly supported family planning clinics, but are still considered “safety net providers” because we provide critical care to students and low-income women. As safety net provider, we used to be able to purchase birth control at discounted prices until that option was eliminated by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
Because all the Planned Parenthoods in Montana are part of the same organization, if one clinic struggles to provide affordable health care and birth control, it affects the entire affiliate. Also, many students who access our Missoula clinic or UM may return home to Kalispell or Billings or Choteau for winter or summer break and would have to pay more for their birth control at those clinics.
Bottom-line? Missoula’s Planned Parenthood is not anticipating a sharp increase in contraceptive prices for our patients locally and we look forward to continuing to provide affordable, confidential and compassionate health care to our patients.
Stacey Bliss,
center manager, Planned Parenthood of Montana, Missoula
This story has been viewed 152 times.
Comments
There are no comments for this story yet.
