Melissa Willhite, 22-year-old senior business major at The University of Memphis, has been taking birth control pills since she was 16 years old.
"I started taking them to regulate my period, and I have been taking them ever since," said Willhite. "They just make sense."
Around 70 percent of college-age women take some sort of birth control, making it the most commonly prescribed prescription drug in the 17-24-year-old age group.
Many students rely on health insurance to help defer the cost of medication. However, many student health insurance plans do not cover the cost of birth control.
The Tennessee Board of Regents Student Insurance Committee, which has domain over all student-affiliated plans, endorses GM Southwest Insurance's student insurance plans.
GM Southwest offers students two different plans, one of which covers elective abortion, but neither of which cover birth control under their prescription drug coverage.
According to the Student Injury and Sickness Insurance Plan for Tennessee State University the plan offers a $500 max on elective abortions.
"I'm sure that they are banking on that people are going to pay for birth control out-of-pocket," said Carol Lynn, a Memphis OBGYN and Gynecologist, who frequently prescribes birth control to college-age women. "I could understand if they didn't cover birth control and covered abortions performed for the purpose of patient medical well-being, but that is unbelievable."
According to Lynn, many insurance companies' decision not to cover birth control under their student insurance plans is most likely driven by their need to cut costs.
"If they're a student insurer, then birth control would likely be their biggest expense in prescription drug coverage," said Lynn.
Lynn said that covering abortions but not birth control actually saves the company money.
"Birth control is a long-term commitment," said Lynn. "They probably figure that even if you get pregnant once and have an abortion, you are going to take preventative steps to never have to have one again.
"The money they save doing one elective abortion versus buying a person 100 pills a year indefinitely for birth control is enormous."
Willhite said that she does not think that the insurance company's current policy on birth control is looking out for the best interests of the female student population.
"By covering abortion but not contraception, they are almost condoning unplanned pregnancies," said Willhite. "What if there is someone who simply can't afford to seek out and purchase birth control somewhere else? Are they supposed to just wait it out and get an abortion after they get pregnant because it is covered?"
According to Lynn, however, profit may not be the only concern behind the insurance company's birth control policy.
"Yes, that's what increases their bottom line, but it ultimately makes students' costs lower, reducing the price of insurance plans," she said.
