UBC professor: “We need a full range of contraceptives to be able to meet everyone’s needs.
Starting April 1, people with a prescription will be able to get contraceptives for free in British Columbia.
With $119 million in funding over the next three years, all women who need prescription birth control will be able to get it. It includes hormone pills, contraceptive injections, hormonal and copper intrauterine devices, subdermal implants, and Plan B, which is also called the morning-after pill. Men, even trans men, will also be able to get free birth control with a prescription.
Officials from the government said that starting in April, MSP residents who want to get free birth control will have to get a prescription from their family doctor and take it to their pharmacist with their MSP card.
B.C. PharmaCare won’t pay for cervical caps, condoms, diaphragms, patches, rings, or sponges, according to the provincial government’s website. Some people don’t believe the promise of free birth control because of these things.
What effect do exclusions have on people in British Columbia
Erin Knipstrom, a 41-year-old woman from Maple Ridge who uses a transdermal patch, is upset that her method of birth control won’t be covered.
She said that other forms of birth control are not an option for her. She said that she and her doctor decided that the patch is a non-invasive solution with few side effects that doesn’t make any other health problems worse.
“It’s really unfair not to cover these other ways to stop pregnancy,” she said. “So many women are affected, and they all take birth control for different reasons.”
Karlyn Roach, who is 31 and from Kelowna, says she has used a transdermal patch for seven years after trying other methods. Even though it stops her from getting pregnant, she mostly uses it to ease the pain from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Roach, who works at Kelowna General Hospital, was disappointed when she asked her pharmacist if the new program would cover her.
“I just looked at my husband, who was there with me, and started crying because you feel so invisible.
“People who are ovulating don’t just take the first pill they are given and expect it to work miracles. Every individual is different, ” said Roach.
Roach thinks it’s a good thing that she can pay the $450 a year for her medicine, but she worries about people who can’t.
“Money talks. When someone can’t afford something or can barely afford it, they will switch to something that is free because, well, why wouldn’t you? They will do this even if it hurts their health.”
Sara Eftekhar, a nurse practitioner and AccessBC campaign organizer, said that giving free birth control is a step in the right direction for reproductive justice, but the fact that some types of birth control aren’t included is worrying.
She said that AccessBC was told by the Ministry of Health that it might add more forms of birth control in the future, but not all. But there is no time frame or answer about how this process would work.
Plan W pays for vaginal rings and the transdermal patch right now (First Nations Health Benefits). Those who are covered will keep getting it.
Why the exclusion? 
Wendy Norman, a professor in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia and a research chair at the Public Health Agency of Canada, says it all comes down to the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH).
It does reviews that decide which drugs will be covered.
Norman said that it has been found that the options that were left out weren’t any better than birth control pills, and they often cost more and had more side effects.
She says, though, that it doesn’t take into account what’s going on in people’s lives.
“We need a wide range of birth control options to meet everyone’s needs. People find that different ways work better for them for a lot of different reasons.”