A few months ago, I remember reading that birth control prices were sky-rocketing and thinking rather casually that this was just another in a long line of problems with the American healthcare system. I admit that I have often been one to argue that politics does not directly affect me. However, both these thoughts were disproved today when I discovered that politics will eventually hit home in one way or another. Upon walking up to the CVS Pharmacy window, I discovered that my birth control pill, under AETNA Insurance, had increased from $35 dollars to $60. Thirty-five dollars was quite an exorbitant of money for a prescription to begin with, but sixty dollars a month is absolutely absurd.

Granted, there are cheaper options that I can get my doctor to prescribe for me in the future, at least I hope. However, as there is no direct generic version of the drug I am on, I was forced to pay the $60 at this time and switching drugs will be a difficult task. What’s worse is that the insurance company gave me no advanced warning of this change in prices, but simply left me to discover thus on my own.

I had often wondered in the past why there are still so many unwanted pregnancies when a large array of birth control is readily available. However, if things continue at this rate, birth control pills will start to become a privilege of the upper and middle classes, not affordable to those who arguably need it most. I do not claim to know who is to blame for this change with certainty, though the easy target is the insurance companies themselves. Then again, recent initiatives like the 2005 Medicaid Bill that was just implemented in January decreased rebates pharmaceutical companies received for selling birth control to campuses at large discounts (this still wouldn’t help me though, as Georgetown will not fill birth control based on its Catholic morals.) In any case, measures such as these indicate that at least part of the problem is political. Without naming names, it is truly unfortunate when the politics of religion inhibit women from getting the medical protection that they are entitled to.