Starting April 1, 2023, British Columbia will be the first province in Canada to make prescription birth control free to all residents. For a person who pays $25 a month for hormonal pills, this program could save them as much as $10,000 over their lifetime.
The province promises to dedicate $119 million over three years to remove this cost in order to give people more choices about their own sexual and reproductive health.
The program will fully cover prescription contraception options, including most oral hormone pills, contraceptive injections, copper and hormonal intrauterine devices, subdermal implants and Plan B (also known as the morning-after pill).
People do not have to register for coverage or fill out any forms. They simply take a prescription and their BC Services Card to a pharmacy.
PharmaCare doesn’t currently cover cervical caps, condoms, diaphragms, patches, rings, sponges. These methods of birth control are often available free at sexual health clinics across the province.
At The Health Insider we applaud this funding by the British Columbia government. This will no doubt be life-changing for many citizens of B.C. and we look forward to seeing other provinces provide similar funding.
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