In response to the Sept. 26 Kernel article on student health insurance expansion, I appreciate UK’s decision to expand the insurance program. However, if you read the exclusions section where it lists items not covered by the plan, you will find contraception as one of those benefits not provided.

As reported by the Kernel last year, previously discounted oral contraceptives at University Health Services have jumped in price to almost three times their previous cost due to a loss of federal funding.

Many students choose to begin sexual activity during their college years. However, students are prescribed birth control for a variety of uses. It is important for the university to recognize the medical needs of women by making certain that students have affordable options for birth control.

Because of the recent price hike for many oral contraceptives at the UHS pharmacy, there is an even greater need for student health insurance to provide coverage for these medications.

Without this coverage, and as prices continue to rise, more and more students will see birth control as a financial burden they cannot bear.

The current insurance plan covers prescriptions at $10 for generic and $30 for name brand if students purchase their prescriptions at UK’s pharmacies. Why can’t UK choose to cover oral contraceptives at the same rate?

Mary Bosserman

Graduate Student Congress finance chair