hope this helps someone. Article states that certain birth control pills are now $9 a month at krogers (I'd call before I changed your RX over to them to make sure)

Story:

http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-women/2008/2/20/birth-control-pills-for-a-mere-9-a-month.html

well dang it's about time they went generic! I think the ortho tri-cyclen is one I took back in college or right after (graduated college in '90!) I was wondering when they'd have generic versions of these. unfortunately my dr wont' prescribe the pills for me because I take meds for my blood pressure and I'm 42 so I have ot do the nuvaring or depo shot.

If anyone has BCBS (it may be only certain tiers of BCBS), generic drugs are free through June. This includes Portia, which is the generic for Ortho Tricyclen (I think!).

Heather, after some quick googling it looks like that program is limited to BCBS of North Carolina.

Oh darn! I am so sorry. Maybe someone in NC can benefit from it. I am trying to stock up as much as I can before June hits!

My bcp, Yasmin 28, went generic.  It's now called Odella (or something like that).  Yasmin morphed into Yaz at the height of the "you can only have 4 periods a year, if you want" craze.  I had already been prescribed to take only the active pills and none of the inactives in Yasmin and start a new pack when the last active one was taken.  I still do that.  The price has come down nicely, too, especially if you have a plan that will allow you to get 3 months' supply at the cost of one co-payment.

Your local health department might be able to help out with birth control as well.  When I ended up in Kentucky after Hurricane Katrina, I only had a couple week's worth of birth control pills left.  I had gotten a job in Kentucky immediately, so they based my payments off the $15,000 or so annual income from that job.  The total cost for 13 months of birth control pills, an exam and pap smear, and a year's worth of multivitamins was $19-- and payment of that was optional.  Doesn't hurt to check to see what the costs would be in your area.

I get the generic form of Seasonalle--called Jolessa.  Being that it is generic and for three months at a time I pay $10 every three months (I have BCBS) I used to pay $20 a month for Ortho tricyclen lo.  I save $200 a year plus however much on pads and tampons each month, 

I take Sprintec, which is the generic for Ortho Cyclen ($9 at Walmart) and it's working great. The health department usually works on a sliding scale, they ask for one or two check stubs and base the payment on that. Since I am a stay at home mom, I got it free. I pay the $9 now because I have two kids and the health department is 40 min away so it's too much of an adventure for me, haha.

As a completely free method of birth control (though you have to control yourself for a few days each month) check out Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Weschler.  

I've only been using it about two months, but I know several people who have used it for years.   You just need to actually pay attention every day for a couple minutes.