[NOW Actions] Restore Affordable Birth Control to Low Income and College Women

Support NOW's Work |	November 30, 2007	| Tell a Friend

Action Needed Background All NOW Actions Support NOW's Work on this Issue!		Restore Affordable Birth Control to Low Income and College Women With your help, we can undo the sneak attack on birth control that has already resulted in up to tenfold increases in contraception costs for college students and low-income women this year. Congress is coming back for two weeks in December, and will have a chance to make a technical change that will reinstate the price reductions that have made birth control affordable for low-income and college women. Action Needed: Contact your senators and representative right now and ask them to sponsor and support the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act (H.R. 4054 and S.2347) and to vote for it, if it is attached to a "must pass" bill such as the Medicare Physician Payment Fix. For many years, pharmaceutical companies have been selling birth control pills and supplies at a steep discount to college and university health centers, along with hundreds of other safety-net health care providers, so that they could pass the savings along to students and low-income clients. A provision in the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) essentially prevented these discounts, and prices soared. The results have been devastating. Over three million college women and several hundred thousand low-income women depend on these providers for birth control they can afford, and since the passage of the DRA, birth control prices have gone from $5-$10 to $40-$50 per pack. This tenfold increase has caused many health centers to discontinue dispensing birth control entirely. These bills introduced by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would fix that provision in the DRA, and restore the ability of pharmaceutical companies to offer these discounts. Act now to ensure the restoration and continuation of this important and affordable reproductive health option. NOW's legislative action center will provide a sample letter for legislators depending on whether they have or have not signed on as co-sponsors of this act. Write your senators and representative! Background: Senate bill and co-sponsors House bill and co-sponsors AP story The Des Moines (Iowa) Register Editorial CBO Report on the Deficit Reduction Act (PDF)
SUPPORT NOW: Support NOW's Work for Equal Rights | Join NOW | Monthly Giving | Catalog | Shop Amazon TAKE ACTION: Get Involved | Find Your Nearest Chapter | Tell a Friend | Learn More LISTS: Unsubscribe, Edit Profile | Subscribe | All Lists