A rise in the price of birth control pills the past two months might have a severe effect on the family planning services the Casper-Natrona County Health Department provides or whether it can provide them at all.

Tia Hansuld, director of the disease prevention clinic at the health department, said the clinic used to pay about $3 to $4 for a pack of birth control pills with some of them costing as low as 29 cents.

Now, she said, they cost the health department up to $20 with generic packs of pills costing $8 or $9.

"It's a big problem," Hansuld said. "I have not budgeted for this. If we are giving out a lot of pills for free at $10 a pack, maybe we will have to go to a private (family planning) clinic."

The health department's family planning clinic operates under Title X of the Public Health Service Act, which means it gets federal funding but must follow federal guidelines. Hansuld said the biggest guideline they must follow is providing free contraceptives to anyone below the poverty level.

Hansuld said 80 percent of the department's family planning patients fall below poverty, while the other 20 percent pay for contraceptives on a sliding-scale rate based on their income. As of Tuesday, this 20 percent of patients will pay no less than $10 for their birth control.

The health department asks the other 80 percent to donate money for their pills, and Hansuld said the clinic does very well with donations.

But now the clinic is hoping to get donations of $10 per pack of pills distributed, instead of the $5 it used to ask.

"And $10 only covers the pills if they are generic," Hansuld said.

However, Susan Stevens, a pharmacy technician at the Community Health Center of Central Wyoming, said she has not really seen an increase in the price of birth control in the pharmacy or for its clients.

Daniel Kessler, public affairs coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Wyoming, said he has seen the price increase on certain types of contraceptives and Planned Parenthood has had to pass some of the costs onto patients in some circumstances.

"The majority of our clients are 18 to 24, younger women who do not have a lot of money," Kessler said. "So the price of birth control is always a concern for us."