These are stories that people have told to us. Click here to tell us your own...

"Two secretaries in a major law firm questioned the personnel director about the lack of contraceptive coverage in one of the firm's major health plans. As a result, management soon learned how inexpensive it was to add contraceptive coverage. When renewal time came around, the employer pressed for and got full contraception coverage! "

from PP Stories: The Law Firm

"An employee of a small northwest city got the facts and figures on the high cost of unintended pregnancy. She presented it to the board that administers city workers' health benefits. Her union rep was supportive and went into the meeting with her. The board listened, asked questions and voted to approve the request. The city now offers birth control benefits to its employees."

from PP Stories: City Government

"One woman, who works for an established food services company, contacted us in the spring about the exclusion of contraceptive benefits in the company's only health insurance plan. With a brief letter in hand, along with a few statistics to back her up, she spoke with the company's vice president. The VP not only agreed that such coverage made sense, but he was also puzzled as to why it was not covered already. He told her that the policies would probably change when the company revised its medical plan at the end of the year. And that's exactly what happened. The new insurance plan, effective at the beginning of the year, covers birth control. "

from PP Stories: The Corporation

"I actually wanted to share some good news. I work for the State of CT and at long last, effective July 1 birth control pills will be covered under our health plan as all other prescription medications. For the last year they have been covered at a lower rate of approximately $18 a month which is better than $30+, but at long last we have a victory for the women employees of the State of CT. "

35 year old female
from Bristol, CT

"When I began work with my former employer, I discovered that their insurance plan did not include contraceptives. I took the initiative and spoke to the head of our HR department. After only one month, SHE emailed to inform me that coverage would be included! I spoke with her about it personally, a few months later, and we decided that because our company have been founded by men, it never occurred to them to even ask for contraceptive coverage in the insurance plan. Sometimes, all we have to do is simply speak up!!"

42 year old female
from Abington, PA

"Being the youngest female in my office, contraceptive coverage never came up as an issue within the office. Now that I informed the president, he was not only shocked that there was no such coverage, he is looking into contraceptive coverage for the office. "

26 year old female

"I work for ProAct Pharmacy Services, Inc. a pharmacy benefits manager, and a division of Kinney Drugs, Inc. Kinney is a 60 store drug chain in Northern NY and VT. We (ProAct) administers the prescription benefit plan for Kinney Employees (as well as many other employer groups). Kinney has been covering FDA approved oral contraceptives since May of 1999. Because I was involved in the decision, I know that it was not only because they were raising member's co-pays and they wanted to give something back but also because Kinney saw this coming and knew that we could not continue covering it for much longer. We are an employee owned chain with our corporate headquarters in Gouverneur, NY. It is interesting to see that we are ahead of the big chains (Eckerd, CVS, etc) on this issue. (This has been a major issue to me because I also take birth control myself and know how much I appreciate it being covered.) In my business I am working with employer groups everyday deciding whether or not to cover O.C's. I am actually going to put this in my newsletter to my clients this month to make them all reconsider their policy on this important rx issue!"

24 year old female
from Harrisville, NY

"I recently started a new job and was shocked when I found that my new insurance didn't cover my birth control pills. My previous employer's insurance did cover me and I never even realized that there were insurance companies that didn't cover birth control. I was quite upset and didn't know where to turn. That very week, I read a story in the newspaper about the woman from Washington who had sued her employer over birth control coverage and won. I went straight to the internet and looked for information. That's how I found your site. I used one of your letters along with a copy of the news story and gave it to my employer. Today I found out that beginning with our new plan year in September, by company's insurance plan will include birth control coverage. You can chalk up another win for the good guys! Thanks "cover my pills.org" you really saved the day!"

28 year old female
from Aberdeen, SD 57401

"Wow, I was going to log on to the website today because I just received a wonderful e-mail from the benefits manager at my school. She told me that the college will be changing their policy to cover contraceptive drugs, and that the new policy would go into effect on July 1, 2001! When I first approached her, she was supportive, but told me that it would probably be a rather involved process and nothing would be likely to happen before July 1, 2002. For about a month and a half I have been preparing myself mentally to address a committee who guides these decisions for the college community. I forced myself to tell lots of people that I was going to do this so that I didn't give myself the opportunity to chicken out. I just crafted a letter that I was planning to mail out to each member of that committee, telling them of my concern and sharing the good news about the Bartell case. The benefits manager also thanked me for sharing with her the news about the court case. I am sure that this important case had a major impact on the decision to cover contraceptives. I could not be more excited about the positive outcome in this case and the ramifications it will undoubtably lead to for other businesses. Thank you so much for all that you do, and congratulations on this important victory for women everywhere!"

31 year old female
from TN

"My husband's employer called me yesterday to inform me that contraception will be covered in their insurance plan starting in January. I was very pleased! I know that it was not specifically because of my letter, but I feel there must be a lot of employees or employee's spouses that had the same feelings that I did. I am very glad that I sent my letter to make my voice heard. "

year oldfemale

"I work at a medium sized non-profit company (about 150 employees) many of whom are young, single women. Recently, I changed health insurance and joined my company's plan. I went to fill a prescription for birth control pills and was shocked to learn that they were not covered. I remembered that I had read about legal action regarding this issue and I found your website. I printed out the information on the website and gave it to the associate executive director of the organization. At first she said that I had to understand that health insurance is not available with or without birth control and that if they provided birth control they would have to choose a much more expensive policy. She brought in the CFO who reiterated the complexities of the problem. He also said that insurance never covers birth control, which I pointed out to be untrue. I suggested that before we presume, we should just contact the provider and find out what it would entail. They said they would. I came away with the sense that my concerns were being pooh-poohed. I also contacted the provider who explained that my organization merely had to add a rider to their policy covering birth control. I passed this information on to both individuals to whom I had spoken. A week later, in the hallway, the associate executive director stopped me to say that the birth control issue had moved to the top of the agenda. This week, the human resources committee decided to add the birth control rider to our insurance policy so that all employees' birth control will be covered. Yesterday the CEO stopped me in the hall and thanked me for pointing out this egregious oversight in their personnel policies. I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised to receive such a response. It seems as if no one had brought up the issue before and that our company, once they knew the facts, was more than willing to do the right thing. Yeah for activism! "

40 year old female
from Brooklyn, NY

"Before my divorce I was covered under my husband's health ins. plan. I was floored by the fact that his ins. would cover me to have an abortion FOR NO MEDICAL REASON, but they would not cover my birth control pills. After doing the math (apparently they can't figure this out) I came to the conclusion that a year's supply of pills is STILL LESS EXPENSIVE than ONE abortion. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with abortions...I just don't want that to be my only choice."

28 year old female
from deerfield, oh

"Preparing for my annual gynecologist appointment, I researched my new health plan, Oxford, which had changed since the previous year. When I discovered my company hadn't provided for contraceptive coverage, I was completely outraged...and also at a loss. There was no way I could afford to continue taking birth control at $30 or $40 a month. Moreso, I was appalled, since money is deducted out of my pay check each month to cover medical expenses. I downloaded the sample letter from the covermypill.com site, customized it, and sent it out to the head of human resources that day. I also attached the Court decision that ruled employers must include contraception coverage, if they provide healthcare benefits. And there were results. Within a week, HR had called and began to implement the program. It seems that the company had "overlooked" this benefit when switching managed care providers. Bravo to Planned Parenthood for making this an easy process with such a compelling and informative website and sample letters. I picked up my pack of pill today and only paid the $7 co-pay!"

24 year old female
from Hoboken, NJ, 07030

"My Insurance (performax/multiplan) will not cover my birth control pills unless I have a doctors letter. This letter must state that I take them due to medical reasons. My doctor refuses to give me the letter because they give her such a hard time. She has other patients that have the same insurance. I'm on the pill to regulate my period. I can go 3 to 6 months without my period since I've been 13 years old. The pill is the only way I can have a monthly cycle. $40 a month is way to much money. I don't understand why the Insurance companies make it such a difficult process for the medical provider and the patient."

28 year old female
from Brooklyn, ny