No more free birth control pills, because Aifa gives the stop

The contraceptive pill is free. Indeed not. After the green light given on April 21, a month later Aifa gives the stop. The Italian Medicines Agency has decided not to rule on the matter, asking for further investigations.

The Prices and Reimbursements Committee of Aifa itself had given the green light a month ago to the decision to make oral contraceptives free for women of all age groups, with a total cost for the state coffers estimated at around 140 million euros a year. A decision that had aroused immediate controversy.

And today here is the stop arrived from Board of the Italian Medicines Agency: “Acknowledging that the Agency’s advisory commissions have not yet elaborated precise indications on the age groups to which the contraceptive pill can be granted free of charge, on the methods of distribution and on the costs for the National Health System in the various scenarios for the adoption of reimbursement, he noted that the essential elements for deliberation do not exist”.

The assumptions in play are different: providing for free birth control pills for all women of childbearing age, for women in economically disadvantaged conditions or for young women up to 19/26 years of age, as occurs in some European countries and in the six Italian regions which offer free the birth control pill. The BoD states that it is “ready to play its role and fully express its opinion as soon as it has the adequate preliminary investigation required of the advisory Commissions”.