why is contraception(for women) so damn expensive

[Fashion Lad!]

I didn't mention variables, you did. This is all YOUR fault.

[Talon]

Could be worse. Someone could have brought in functions and pointers

[Lace Neil Singer]

Trigonometry? After all, we went off on a tangent.

[Fashion Lad!]

Trigonometry? After all, we went off on a tangent.

I aced trig! I was in 9th grade helping 10th and 11th graders get through it!! I understand Trig rather well.

[Dreamstalker]

Is $30-50 a month without insurance?

When I( was in college, for some reason it was cheaper for me to get a 3-month supply not going through the college's insurance than one month with I never did get an explanation...of course I opted for the cheaper option, but it would have just been interesting to know why that was.

My current insurance (state) does cover the pill, but will not cover my chosen OB/GYN. I have yet to determine if that's an actual insurance issue or just a hospital WIC supervisor with a stick up her ass (I posted about that saga somewhere; allegedly I owe the hospital close to a grand for "the past three years", but I have never gotten any bills and my insurance doesn't know anything about it).

[fireheart17]

My turn to do a slight threadjack.

I'm wondering why something like Implanon hasn't been bought in yet? The rod itself I think is about $30AUD and gets inserted into the upper arm, where it stays for about 3 years. Does pretty much everything that the pill does, but you don't have to remember to take it everyday and because it's not taken orally, if you puke, it's not a problem.

Quick explanation onto australian health: most doctors have one of two options: 1) bulk-billing, which is where whatever medicare pays for the service is what they'll accept as fees. 2) gap payments, where you pay and then get most of it back from medicare. (the public health people). Insurance can cover whatever you please, but is not related to jobs.

The clinic at the uni bulk-bills and provide quite a bit actually, but then again, they do have students living on-campus so...
As for the costs of medication, the Pill itself varies, I think the Levlen was about $30 for 3 months, while Yasmin (the other option we considered since I was freaking out about weight gain) was a bit more expensive. I tend to get generics wherever I can, with the exception of government-approved antibiotics (some require government approval before you can take them) and in the case of the Implanon, that too.

Oh and yes, my partner and I use condoms.

[Dreamstalker]

I went to high school with a girl who got the rod implant (this would have been 1998/99)...she didn't say whether it was covered by insurance and I never thought to ask.

The stuff I'm on (Aviane) is $30 per month (when I was in college it was the same price for 3 months when I was getting it filled at Sam's Club).

[HYHYBT]

All I can say is that, after reading this thread, I'm more glad than ever that I'll never have to worry about this sort of thing.