University to fund cost difference of oral contraceptives

By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
   Princeton University has begun subsidizing campus discounts for generic oral contraceptives.
   Last school year, as a result of changes to the federal Deficit Reduction Act, college and university health centers nationwide lost their deep discount on oral contraceptives from pharmaceutical companies.
   According to Princeton’s University Health Services, the university agreed to provide the subsidy in response to concerns about access to affordable oral contraception voiced by many Princeton students.
   Princeton’s subsidy is designed to restore the price of oral contraceptives currently offered by the university health services to levels that were in effect before the federal changes.
   The subsidy was originally estimated to cost $69,000 for the 2008 calendar year, but the current forecast is below that, according to Cass Cliatt, a university spokeswoman.
   Information from the last time the university offered a similar subsidy wasn’t immediately available, Ms. Cliatt said.
   Generic birth control pills are now being sold for $6 per pack, a reduction from the $15 that students have been paying since the Federal Deficit Reduction Act disqualified institutions of higher education from receiving special reduced pricing for contraceptive supplies about a year ago. The oral contraceptives Aviane, generic of Alesse, and Cryselle, generic of Lo-Ovral, are currently being offered at the university.
   According to the health services office, there is a move in Congress to reverse the changes to the act.