93 Lawmakers Sign Letter To Pelosi Asking For Legislative Action To Cut Contraception Prices

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) and 92 other lawmakers recently wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asking that she "take action on an appropriate legislative vehicle" to curb the price of birth control at college health clinics and family planning facilities, CQ Today reports (Allen/Adams, CQ Today, 5/18).

Changes in a Medicaid law resulting from a 2005 deficit-reduction bill resulted in drugmakers having reduced incentives to provide large discounts on some drugs to universities. Many colleges tried to maintain costs for contraceptives for a few months by buying in bulk before the new law took effect in January, but now their stocks are low and they have had to increase prices. The American College Health Association has said that CMS should have included college health centers to the list of providers who are exempt from the law, and the group has supported a proposal to change the law (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/26).

Crowley and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) earlier this year added into a draft war funding bill (HR 1591) a provision reversing the changes in the 2005 law, but the language was later removed, CQ Today reports (CQ Today, 5/18).

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