The Affordable Care Act is expected to expand birth control options, but in the meantime women with inadequate health insurance coverage struggle to pay for contraception. One of them is Jillian Musso, a graduate of Louisiana State University, who moved to Athens with her boyfriend a few months ago.

“I’m insured to the point of hospitalization, as like in the case of a car crash,” says Musso. But this kind of “catastrophic” insurance is no help when it comes to preventing pregnancy.

Musso used to be on her family’s comprehensive health insurance plan, but this came to an end after her stepfather suffered a stroke. The cost of her birth control pills rose when she got her own insurance plan.

“When I first started taking birth control, I was 16. It was $25 with co-pay when I was still on my parents' insurance,” says Musso. “My [new plan] doesn’t cover birth control, even for medical reasons and not just contraceptives, so now it costs $73 a month for the cheapest one. I can’t afford $75 for birth control every month. It’s one third of my rent. It’s crazy.”

When Musso decided to move to Athens, she was forced to look for other, cheaper avenues for getting birth control.

“I have six months worth of samples, because my family doctor felt really bad for me, and sort of just gave them to me under the table,” says Musso. “I have not thought of looking in Athens for birth control… but when the time comes, and I can’t get any more from my old doctor, I’ll have to figure out somewhere to go. I’ll use the Internet or something.”

In fact, Musso won’t have to look far, because she can get help from the Athens-Clarke County Health Department (ACCHD), located at 345 North Harris St., just off the intersection of Hancock and Milledge avenues.

Registered Nurse Marcia Massengill is the County Nurse Manager for the ACCHD, which is the largest health department in the 10-county district.

“We want women to be getting quality health care,” says Massengill. “We want to serve Athens-Clarke County folks.”

The health department’s family planning program provides an array of women’s health services including comprehensive exams, contraception, immunizations and STI treatments. There’s even a free condom dispenser, located at adult eye-level, beside the building’s front door. For uninsured women, like Musso, these services are affordable.

“We operate on a sliding scale. You pay based upon your income,” Massengill says.

So, a patient who earns a substantial income may full price for a PAP smear or a specific type of contraception, but a patient with an income that’s small enough wouldn’t pay anything for those services.

Currently, the county health department has very few patients who pay full price, but even full price is still heavily subsidized by the government.

“Seven dollars is the most you would spend on a pack of pills,” she says. “Twenty-five dollars is the most anyone would pay for the Depo-Provera shot.”

The types of contraceptives available at any given time depends on what the government currently subsidizes.

Despite this limitation, the health department has “several different types of pills, shots, IUDs and implants,” like Nexplanon, one of the newest implants offered by the clinic.

“Nexplanon is a three-year implant placed in the arm,” says Massengill. “It’s more effective at preventing pregnancy than female sterilization.”

Nexplanon costs $779 at a local CVS, but at the health department, patients would, at most, pay a fraction of that price.

The health department strives to serve all women who need family-planning services.

“We don’t have the funding to take care of everyone, but we will never turn away someone who cannot prove their citizenship,” says Massengill. “We will never turn away someone who cannot prove their income.”

This resource could prove to be invaluable for women like Musso, whose limited income has limited her birth control choices. Massengill understands that if women don’t know what the options are, they may feel they have none at all.

“What else am I supposed to do?” says Musso. “It’s the last day of my pack, if I don’t have some tomorrow or the next day, it’s so stressful to think, ‘Wow. I skipped a day of birth control… maybe I’m pregnant now.’”

For more information about the Athens-Clarke County Health Department, or to make an appointment, call 706-389-6921. You can also find information on their website.