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
Hayley
, Pennsylvania, Administrator
Co-pay free birth control means I can now talk to my doctor about trying differnet pills or methods that work better for my body than others. I don't have to settle for what I can afford and suffer from side effects that I may not have on a differnt pill that had a higher co-payment. Please note, I take birth control to regulate my menstrual cycle each month. When I go off of them, the cycle does not remain consistent so I need them for more than just birth control. Also having no co-payment means that I can afford more food, clothing and other essentials too. Lots of people don't think about the women like myself who take the pill for a medical reason and don't have a huge income. I want to take President Obama for caring and makeing this happen. I will now have more options and more money for other things I need too.
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Melanie
Seattle, WA, Adjunct Professor
I am really happy to hear about the wonderful improvements in birth control coverage, sadly I will not be able to benefit from them at this time, I don't have any insurance at all, and I haven't had any since I was a Graduate Teaching Assistant five years ago. When things go wrong I deal with it at home.
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Katie
Alpharetta, GA,
It means that I will be able to cost effectively afford to prevent pregnancy. I have been pregnant 4 times, I lost pregnancies and have two sons. I love my children, would die for them, but I had difficult births and I am now 39. My poor old body could not sustain another pregnancy, nor could my wallet support another child. I am making a RESPONSIBLE decision for myself and for my family. The no co pay just makes it easier and more affordable, which I appreciate.
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Patricia
Columbia, SC,
Co-pays on birth control pills were prohibitive for me. I had to eat hard boiled eggs for two weeks in order to save enough money for the birth control pills. I have a cyst on one ovary and the pain was horrible without the pills. The other alternative was to have surgery and a partial hysterectomy. I do not understand Gov. niki Haley's remarks stating that women in her state do not care about birth control. I do not uinderstand Bill O'Reilly stating that birth control pills are cheap and that birth control can be gotten at any drug store. Condoms will not cure the size of a cyst. Then the Catholic Church priests state that birth control pills are inexpensive. Guys, these are men telling women that their angst over birth control pills is nonsense.T.Y.
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Christine Carey
Columbia, Maryland,
As a working mom, no copay for me will mean an extra 30 bucks a month that we can add to our spending budget. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it means a movie or a small dinner out with my husband, or a couple of books for our daughter, and that's pretty awesome.
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Olivia
Jeffersonville, Indiana, Student
Look, I don't care about birth control pills, or the rings,
or ANYTHING involving generated *hormones*!
Women all over the world put this *crap* into their bodies,
and it's terrible! *GET A PARAGUARD IUD*, fellow women!!!!
PLEASE??? It may "creep" you out, or "weird" you out a bit to
have a *tiny* piece of *copper* living inside you, but
*IT IS *BETTER* FOR *YOUR* *BODIES*!!!!! Don't believe me?
Look it up. Compare the long-term risks of taking
birth control pills, to the risks of having, *SPECIFICALLY*,
*A* *PARAGUARD* *IUD*-which, by the way, remains effective
for 7-10 *years*. Is it expensive? Yep. Is it *worth it*
*AB-SO-FRICKIN-LUTELY*. Am I a *Paraguard* spokeswoman?
*NO*. I'm just sick of women being ignorant with their health,
and ultimate *safety*, as well as their own pocket books,
for God's sake. Yes, you pay *big* for this *tiny* piece of copper,
*AND*, yet again, *insurance* often won't lift a tiny, manicured
finger to cover it-you are b*better off saving up for it, and just
*paying out of pocket for it, like I did*. But, lemme tell you,
*it was, hands down, *one of *THE BEST* decisions I *EVER*
made for myself. (*Just look it up*). You will *hopefully*
see that I'm right. *Thanks*.
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Rebecca Church
Saint Paul, Minnesota, Adjunct Instructor
No co-pay birth control means that my daughter will be able to pursue her dream of completing a master's in public policy and working as a human rights advocate for people around the globe. As a student, she has little extra money, and it would be impossible to complete her degree and work in the challenging field of non-profit human rights advocacy if she was unable to afford birth control and became pregnant unexpectedly. No cost birth control makes it possible for her to pursue her dream of making the world a better place.
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Amy
New York, New York, social worker
It's huge for me. My co pay has varied from $35-75 and as a mother with two children - working as a community social worker -- every little bit counts. I am very happy.
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Linda
Sunnyvale, California, Freelance Editor
In my case, that part of life has passed. However, I remember going to a county health clinic for free birth control pills after I got married, while I was in graduate school and being paid a very low stipend every month to live on. Thank goodness for the county health clinic, although I did not appreciate the racist nurse who advised me that educated white women should be having babies. That clinic saved me money that was desperately needed for food or rent or the electric bill. This was in the early 1970s. I'm glad that young women won't be forced to make such choices, and I fervently hope that Planned Parenthood continues to be funded in part by the government. Life is complicated. And simple, head-in-the-sand advice like "if you can't pay, don't play" strikes a raw nerve in me. If condoms cost what birth control pills cost, the considerate men who use them would be up in arms. There are too many unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. Poor women have a hard enough time as it is; forcing them to choose between food or contraception is the mean-spirtied work of self-righteous ideologues.
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Nora Gyetko
White Plains, NY, "Clerical Assistant"
I'm past menopause, and I opted for a tubal ligation soon after I married. I'm childless by choice. I worry about other American women who may be forced by poverty to bear children they don't have the money or time to care for. As the world gets more crowded, it becomes more and more difficult for anyone but the very wealthy to raise children who'd be able as adults to earn enough money to live on and to find a place to live. And un-planned for children (especially if the parents have mental illness or simply don't want children) are often abused and/or neglected, and all too many of them grow up to suffer terrible psychiatric illness, or they become criminals. So I'd like to ask our lawmakers on the extreme right - Why do you think universal access to birth control is immoral if it can prevent great evils such as child abuse and a critically overcrowded planet?
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