Long-term forms of contraception, like IUDs, can cost up to $1,800 without insurance. But even with insurance, or with discounted rates, the cost of birth control can be prohibitive.
Now, a new pilot is eliminating the cost barrier.
National nonprofit Upstream launched the program in May with a simple mission — providing free birth control for all Coloradans. The program has since served 500 patients statewide, including a handful in the Roaring Fork Valley.
The pilot, called FreeBC, aims to “make sure that birth control access is simple,” according to Upstream’s digital director, Nita Stella.
From its website, patients can learn about different forms of birth control, then choose which they want. If it’s shippable, like the pill or ring, patients can set up a virtual appointment through Pandia Health and get the medication sent to their door. If it requires an in-person visit, like an IUD or implant, FreeBC will connect patients with a local partner clinic.
For every option, FreeBC will cover all patient costs for up to a year, using funding from Upstream’s private and institutional donors.
While the service is open to any Colorado residents, Stella said they’re hoping to reach uninsured people, whose numbers are growing amid Medicaid cuts.
“Those that are uninsured or temporarily uninsured or have high copay challenges, they are just not seeking contraception care,” Stella said.
Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties all have contraceptive access gaps, according to a national analysis from reproductive health nonprofit Power to Choose. It defines that gap as a misalignment between need and availability of contraception.
To close the gap, particularly for long-term contraception, Upstream partnered with local providers throughout Colorado, like Mountain Family Health Centers.
Physician Anneliese Heckert has practiced at the Mountain Family clinic in Glenwood Springs for 15 years. But she never learned how to insert IUDs because she went to a Catholic residency, which restricted the procedure.
Through an Upstream training program, she and other providers at the Glenwood Springs clinic learned how to insert IUDs and implants properly. After that training, the clinic became a local FreeBC partner to provide long-term forms of contraception.
“The patients who have come in have been super grateful, and everything has so far worked seamlessly,” Heckert said. “It's been just another amazing piece of coverage that I think a lot of people can benefit from.”
Heckert said the partnership with FreeBC has also benefited providers. Since its site offers educational information, patients arrive at their contraception appointments more informed and require less consultation time.
Upstream chose to start the pilot in Colorado because of both its need and opportunity.
“It's a very opportunistic state,” said Stella. “There's still a lot of need and a lot of rural access issues that we wanted to help tackle … [and] we have deep clinic relationships in Colorado.”
After this one-year pilot, Upstream will consider continuing coverage for patients and expanding to other states. Stella said she’d like for other organizations to follow its lead.
“We believe that there should be many people offering this care and service because there are many people with a gap in need,” she said. “There's no exclusivity in our mind.”
Although she sees FreeBC as a helpful way to fill gaps caused by dwindling federal resources, Heckert said she doesn’t think privately funded projects should be a long-term solution.
“Private funding could help all different types of healthcare,” she said. “[But] I hope that it does not come to that. I feel like we, as a society, should probably ask for more from our government.”
