British Columbia will be the first province or territory to make prescription birth control free starting April 1, a move that an expert says offers “a glimmer of hope” for the rest of the country.
This week’s provincial budget allocated $119 million over the next three years to eliminate out-of-pocket spending on prescription contraceptives, including oral hormonal pills, birth control injections, subdermal implants, copper and hormonal IUDs and Plan B, the morning after pill.
Finance Minister Katrine Conroy said removing financial barriers would help prevent unwanted pregnancies and give more people more complete control over their reproductive health.
“Too often these fundamental rights are attacked,” she said when the budget was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. “Not here in British Columbia”
The province estimates that this measure could allow a person to pay $25 a month for hormonal contraceptives up to $10,000 over their lifetime. IUDs, which last between three and 10 years, can cost around $500 each without private insurance coverage.
And it could save British Columbia up to $95 million in health care and social costs each year, according to a 2010 study by Options for Sexual Health. About one in five women in Canada will have an unwanted pregnancy, according to a 2016 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Public health experts and advocates say the measure will give people more choice in reproductive health and should set an example for the rest of Canada.
“This policy is really timely, I’m delighted with the way the government has done this in such a broad way,” said Dr Ruth Habte, resident physician in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia and organizer with the non-profit AccessBC, which has been advocating for free prescription birth control since 2017.
From April 1, people seeking contraception will need to present a doctor’s prescription and their MSP card to a pharmacist to qualify for the fee waiver.
And in May, pharmacists can start prescribing and dispensing contraceptives directly to patients as the government expands their scope of practice to ease the burden on primary care physicians.
Prescription birth control is used to prevent unwanted pregnancies and may also be prescribed for serious health conditions affecting people with a uterus, including endometriosis, painful periods, fibroids, and polycystic ovary syndrome. It is different from the prescription medication for medical abortion Mifegymiso, which has been available free in British Columbia since 2018.
Last year, British Columbia announced that prescription contraceptives would be covered by PharmaCare, the public drug plan for people with low incomes or who receive income assistance or disability.
Habte said extending free prescription contraception to everyone will enable all low- and middle-income people and those living in abusive relationships or controlling households to prevent unwanted pregnancies and take care of their health.
“Many have no control over their household money, so it’s extremely important for them to have free access to the contraceptive of their choice,” Habte said. An unwanted pregnancy greatly increases the risk of intimate partner violence and can further bond the pregnant partner to her violent partner or situation, she noted.
But prescription contraception, such as medical or surgical abortions, is even harder to access for people living in small communities and rural areas.
Family physicians or pharmacists may not want to prescribe contraception, and stigma may prevent patients who know their health care provider personally from asking. Regularly going to a pharmacy to obtain medication can be a challenge for people living in remote areas.
And this measure will not help people new to British Columbia, including temporary foreign workers and asylum seekers, until their three-month waiting period for MSP is over.
Habte said limited access to contraception and abortion care leads to more unwanted pregnancies and serious health problems that require expensive hospital care.
“Patients who do not have PSM and who become pregnant are often unable to afford an abortion…so our health system provides the emergency care needed to deliver someone who had no no health insurance and couldn’t get an abortion or even contraception,” Habte said.
“This person could have avoided such a stressful and upsetting experience if they had had access to contraception to begin with.”
Habte hopes the policy will soon include people who don’t have MSP coverage and pave the way for continued free birth control campaigns in Ontario and Manitoba.
“It should be as broad a policy as possible,” she said. “I hope other provinces will follow suit.” ![[Tyee]](https://i0.wp.com/www.bing.com/design-article.thetyee.ca/ui/img/yellowblob.png?resize=16%2C16){kind=small}