I’ve been dealing with a ton of drama regarding birth control lately, and it was resolved in the most beautiful way yesterday- I know there’s been some talk recently about affordable birth control options, so here’s what I found out. Also, this is not meant to start a debate (As it has almost every time someone’s made a birth control post, on whether birth control is right or wrong, and if poor people shouldn’t have babies. If you want to insert your opinions on that there are plenty of other places to do it, this is just useful information for people who need birth control, because babies cost a lot of money!)
I’ve wanted to get an IUD and my doctor’s office required up-front payment of $150 before they’d insert it. I saved back (which is hard to do when you have a new baby) and finally got enough together to get it. I went in and was turned away because I was mid-cycle (ugh! why don’t they warn you about these things ahead of time?) and then found out that they gave away their only Para-Guard a week before my second appointment. All of this was incredibly frustrating, but my doctor mentioned that the health department would do IUD insertion for little to no cost.
I went yesterday and got signed up on my state’s family planning medicaid. I don’t know how we qualified, as we make too much for any other state assistance, but we did, so my IUD insertion is totally free. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the market for birth control. Even if you don’t qualify for family planning medicaid, its on a sliding scale, so generally its much cheaper to get it through the health department.
Here were the upsides:
There was very little waiting!
In fact, I waited longer at my doctor’s office! I sat there in the waiting room amongst the WIC applicants and their kids for 5 minutes before they brought me back to the exam room.
Its free!
I filled out an application and it asked for this month’s information. No tax forms, pay stubs, income verification, just “how much do you make? ok, cool. here you go.” Anyhow, we qualified for family planning medicaid through the state of Arkansas, which covers birth control as well as 1 pap and breast exam every year. Yay!
The exam wasn’t awful!
I expected the free exam to really suck, but it didn’t. My exam was quick, virtually pain-free (aside from the finger stick) and I even got a baggy full of condoms on my way out the door! Good times!
I have to say, the only thing that pisses me off is the fact I’ve been saving and worrying and making repeated trips to my doctor, you know, the one I have to pay for… and all the while there’s this service being provided hassle-free for little to no cost just right down the road.
