Share Your Story: What does birth control without co-pays mean for you?
Has cost ever kept you from using the method of birth control that’s best for you? Has it forced you to make tough choices, like going without birth control or even delaying paying a bill so you can afford it?
Thanks to the health care law, new insurance plans are required to cover birth control and other women’s preventive health services with no co-payments or deductibles at the start of their next plan year. As more health plans come under the law’s reach, more and more women will be able to keep their wallets closed when they pick up their birth control.
Tell us — what does it mean to you that you will soon get birth control with no co-pays or deductibles?
Please note: The views expressed in the stories below are those of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the National Women's Law Center. All statements of fact in these stories have been provided by the individual authors, and the National Women's Law Center cannot and does not vouch for their accuracy. The Center will compile the stories and may use them, in whole or in part, in our advocacy efforts.
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Your Stories
Cassie
OKC, OK, medical billing
A step in the right direction...finally. I'm grateful this has happened more affordable for those that choose to use it. And I'm one of them.
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Lori Alberti
Kiowa, Colorado, Mom
I'm the mother of five girls (and three boys) Both my oldest girls were using planned parenthood for their birth control but I just didn't think about the other three girls. So my 8 year old daughter was raped. I don't know wether thie 12 IUDs are available under this new plan but since all three of my youngest daughters have some cognitive disabilities I sure am grateful for planned parenthood helping us that day of the rape and so many days after.
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Sharon Dymowski
Alexandria, VA, retired
Birth control without co-pay means nothing to me personally, as I am way beyond child-bearing years. However, I have two daughters in their twenties, who I would hope are able to determine when it is best for them to have children. This is not a cheer for irresponsible sex, but rather a cheer for responsible decision making, which I totally trust them to do.
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Sandy Werner
, Wyoming,
I am 58 years old, so am no longer in need of birth control. That said, what birth control without co-pay means to me is everything. Everything because of my young nieces. Everything because no woman is free unless she has complete, easy access to birth control and abortion on demand with no apology or excuse. Everything because of emergency contraception giving rape survivors their lives back immediately. Everything because of the many other uses for birth control, from acne to unbearable, passing-out cramps. My activism started in the late 60s Chicago, when I marched, counter-protested Operation Rescue—Randall Terry and his rabid followers, and helped with clinic escorts. I have watched the antichoice goings on all these years, and I am very, very frightened by the turn this country has taken in this past year with over 1,000 laws attacking women's reproductive rights. I see it as a conspiracy. Why else would it be happening simultaneously across the nation? I thought we were past this sort of thing, but there are those who will not be happy unless everyone is assimilated into their religion and this country is a theocracy. President Obama and groups like NWLC, Unite Women, NARAL, NOW, are the only things holding us back from that. Imagine if these attacks came with this force when George W. was in office? Imagine now, what it will be like if "those other two" are put in charge? What birth control without co-pay means to me is somebody with power is still fighting like hell for women, and I will fight like hell to back him and to help him get reelected, and I will fight like hell to support these groups in whatever ways I can, and I will fight like hell to keep my nieces safe, and I will fight like hell to make our country a safe place for women.
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Raven
, New York,
Having birth control without co-pays means not worrying about an accidental pregnancy. It means I can enjoy my life with my boyfriend without having to stress about the possibility of a baby. I am not ready to have a child yet. It also means that I don't get monthly cramps and nausea that comes along with my period.
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Kelly Snyder
Baxter, TN,
not having to pay a co pay helps my family alot being on a budget and getting married it would cost more for a baby right and being able to wait a couple of years for is great
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Kiana Gomillion
New York, New York, Student
Birth control with no co-pays would I don't have to worry about unplanned pregnancy
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SMB
Jackson, MI,
Having access to birth control is important, especially when initially entering into a relationship. In the area where I live, I have seen too many people enter relationships and accidentally get pregnant. Sometimes the man would offer to take care of the child; more often than not, they bail out, leaving the mother to have to go through the court system to seek out child support and put their children through a lifetime of dysfunction that inevitably perpetuates the cycle for future generations. Having access to birth control meant that I was in control of my destiny and future, not allowing myself to be subject to the whims of some immature man who was little more than an overgrown adolescent himself. I was able to chose to leave the relationship if it proved to be unhealthy or potentially harmful for me, and not stay and prolong the agony because of children being in the middle of it. Because my own family has a history of depression, bipolar disorder and substance abuse, I chose not to have children, which is fine in my case. I do not have to deal with the guilt of dragging innocent lives through my personal guano. Had Rowe vs. Wade never came about, and we did not have leaders who currently advocate for women's health, I shudder to think of the alternative.
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Gale Rullmann
, North Carolina,
What birth control pills mean to me with out copay or any payment? It means allot! I remember having to pay for my own birth control pills when I was younger and it was about 72.00 dollars a year. Okay so now you know that I am allot older and certainly do not need birth control. This will help allot of single women on their own and married women who would rather plan if they perfer to have children. Access to birth control will decrease the population and could help by keeping it in control. We are having a population explosion and by the year 2025 we could have about 7 billion people on this earth! The more people the more we need and have to destroy in order to provide for everyone. Birth control will also minimize the percentage of abortions. I am not against abortions but if there is a way to prevent abortions, I am all for it. It gives the control to the woman when she would want to have children. It is a better way for a family to plan their future so any children that they do have will hopefully have all that they need.
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Camille Landry
Warr Acres, OK, Data Analyst
I was a young mother, working from home and caring for my 3 children. As an independent contractor I received no benefits. My husband worked for a national fast food chain as a regional manager. We had insurance through his job but copays were high since we had not met our deductible. In order to get prescription contraceptives, I needed to come up with $80 for an office visit, another $65 for a Pap smear plus the cost of the birth control pills themselves. I had to choose between paying the electric bill and getting the health services I needed.I now have five children (one additional birth child plus an adopted daughter). I love and cherish all of them and wouldn't trade any of them for the world, but the capricious and greedy provisions of most health care insurers prior to the Affordable Care Act have caused a lot of misfortune to a lot of people. Hard-working Americans (and any other kind of Americans!) should not have to choose between survival, sustenance and health care.PS - Needless to say, my adopted child would probably never have been born had contraception been free and readily available to her young mother, who was in no way ready for parenthood.Thank you, President Obama and the congresspeople who gave us Obamacare.
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