Plan B is an efficient type of emergency conception that may assist forestall being pregnant. It’s broadly obtainable at many retailers, each on-line and in-store.
However simply because one thing is out there over-the-counter doesn’t at all times imply it’s inexpensive.
You may get Plan B One-Step, also referred to as the morning-after capsule, for about $45 to $60 at most main retailers, together with CVS, Goal, Walmart and Walgreens. You don’t have to supply a prescription, identification or your age.
There are additionally generic variations — together with Take Motion, My Method and After Tablet — that price much less, anyplace from $11 to $40.
The model of emergency contraception you purchase doesn’t matter — all brand-name and generic morning-after drugs with levonorgestrel work the identical.
8 Methods to Get Low-cost Plan B
How a lot you pay for emergency contraception is dependent upon a number of elements, together with the model you purchase, the place you get it and when you have medical insurance.
Listed below are eight suggestions to save cash on Plan B and its generic alternate options.
- Purchase Plan B earlier than you want it
- Use this $10 off coupon from Plan B
- Search for generics
- Go to Deliberate Parenthood or a well being division clinic
- Go to your campus well being clinic
- Order immediately from the corporate
- Use your medical insurance
- Examine on-line suppliers
1. Purchase Plan B Earlier than You Want It
One of the simplest ways to save cash on emergency contraception is to purchase it upfront.
In any other case you might be caught paying greater than $50 for a single (albeit essential) capsule at your nearest drugstore just because it’s the quickest, best choice.
Plan B comprises levonorgestrel, which works by delaying ovulation and stopping being pregnant. (It’s not an abortion capsule, which terminates a being pregnant.)
Having a bundle or two of Plan B able to go in your medication cupboard saves you time, which is of the essence with levonorgestrel drugs.
Plan B and comparable medicines are greatest used inside 72 hours of unprotected intercourse — and it’s best when used inside 24 hours.
Placing a pack on the highest of your buying record not solely provides you peace of thoughts — it additionally provides you time to buy round for the very best deal.
Levonorgestrel morning-after drugs have a shelf lifetime of about 4 years, so be sure that to maintain monitor of the expiration date on the field while you buy it.
Don’t Depend on Prime One-Day Transport Both
We’ve all gotten spoiled by Amazon’s mind-blowingly quick supply instances.
However should you want the morning-after capsule — properly, the morning after — don’t maintain your breath.
Amazon, together with different main shops and pharmacies, is struggling to maintain up with demand for emergency contraception following the Supreme Courtroom’s choice to overturn Roe v. Wade in late June.
That may imply longer-than-usual supply instances.
Once we checked in early July, Amazon was utterly offered out of two Plan B choices. The soonest supply for Plan B offered by a third-party vendor was greater than a month away (even with Prime).
Amazon and several other different retailers initially put buying limits on Plan B after the Supreme Courtroom’s choice turned public. Some have been lifted in July.
2. Use This $10 Off Coupon From Plan B
The producer of Plan B affords a $10 off coupon you possibly can print from its web site.
Or should you already bought Plan B, you possibly can submit your receipt on-line or mail it in for a $10 money-back rebate. You can too monitor the standing of your rebate on-line.
A head’s up from Plan B’s web site: You possibly can’t use a coupon and a rebate collectively.
3. Search for Generics
Plan B One-Step is the best-known model title of levonorgestrel drugs. It first hit the market within the Nineties.
It’s additionally the costliest choice, and loads of extra inexpensive generics now exist.
Generic names of Plan B embody:
- Subsequent Selection One Dose
- My Method
- Take Motion
- AfterPill
- Choice 2
- Preventeza
- My Selection
- Aftera
- EContra
- New Day
Many instances, you’ll pay a fraction of the fee — and get the identical lively ingredient and effectiveness — by utilizing a Plan B generic.
On Amazon, for instance, you should purchase Plan B for greater than $40, however the generic My Method prices round $15. Purchase a six-pack of My Method and you might save much more, right down to about $10 a capsule.
Equally, on Walmart.com, Plan B goes for $40-plus, whereas the generic My Selection sells for round $10.
4. Go to Deliberate Parenthood or a Well being Division Clinic
For those who dwell close to one of many 600 Deliberate Parenthood clinics in the USA, you possibly can sometimes get Plan B for as little as $40.
Merely cease in to a Deliberate Parenthood and decide it up — you don’t have to make an appointment, present ID or disclose your age.
For those who can’t afford to pay full value, the clinic can present the morning-after capsule to you at no cost or at a decreased price. That is most likely the quickest, most cost-effective choice for folks with decrease incomes.
You could possibly get a number of packs of emergency contraception from Deliberate Parenthood annually.
One of the simplest ways to see should you qualify for a free or discounted capsule is to call your local Planned Parenthood and ask.
You can too test your state’s well being division web site for clinics in your space.
Many well being departments supply household planning or girls’s well being care providers — together with emergency contraception — on a sliding scale.
5. Go to Your Campus Well being Clinic
For those who’re a university pupil, your campus well being clinic can present emergency contraception, often at a decreased price or at no cost.
Some clinics dispense drugs on-site, whereas others might give you a coupon or voucher to make use of at an off-campus pharmacy.
Take note your campus clinic could also be open for restricted hours or solely Monday by Friday.
Merchandising machines have change into a well-liked approach to supply 24-hour entry to emergency contraception on school campuses.
From big-name faculties like Stanford and Dartmouth to small rural campuses, extra locations of upper schooling are providing these discreet, easy-to-use machines.
Calling your pupil well being middle is one of the best ways to seek out out what your school affords.
For those who’re in highschool, you possibly can cease by the varsity nurse’s workplace and ask if they supply emergency contraception to college students or can supply a referral.
6. Order After Tablet for $20 Immediately From the Firm
For those who’re shopping for emergency contraceptives for a “simply in case” and never a “want it proper now” scenario, you will get After Tablet for $20 plus $5 transport by the manufacturer’s website.
For those who want the treatment shortly, look elsewhere. After Tablet received’t arrive for no less than 5 to seven enterprise days.
7. Use Your Well being Insurance coverage
You may pay $0 for Plan B and comparable medicine when you have medical insurance or Medicaid.
When you don’t want insurance coverage to purchase Plan B — it’s an over-the-counter drug — a health care provider or well being care skilled can nonetheless write a prescription for it so your insurance coverage covers the fee.
For those who go this route, you might pay $0 out of pocket, particularly when you have Medicaid otherwise you’ve already met your yearly insurance coverage deductible.
Even when insurance coverage doesn’t cowl the total price of the prescription — perhaps since you’re enrolled in a high-deductible well being plan — you need to use an app like GoodRx to seek out the most affordable pharmacy in your space.
Once we checked in July, filling a Plan B prescription with out insurance coverage was as low cost as $10.55 and sometimes between $11 and $13 from a number of pharmacies.
You should buy the morning-after capsule with a well being financial savings account (HSA) or a versatile spending account (FSA). Each supply tax-savings on medical bills.
8. Examine On-line Suppliers
A number of telehealth firms — together with Nurx, Wisp and Favor (previously The Tablet Membership) — present the morning-after capsule together with discreet residence supply.
For those who’re tight on time, Nurx and Wisp can name a prescription into your native pharmacy for generic Plan B. Nurx additionally affords in a single day transport (for $15 extra) on Ella, a distinct kind of emergency contraceptive that’s efficient for as much as 5 days.
For those who’re not in a rush, these firms can ship you emergency contraception with free transport in three to 5 enterprise days.
You’ll usually save probably the most cash with Favor and Nurx while you use your medical insurance and go for customary transport.
Nurx affords New Day, the generic equal of Plan B, for as little as $0 with insurance coverage or $20 with out insurance coverage. Nonetheless, Nurx additionally fees a $15 session payment, whether or not you could have insurance coverage or not.
Favor affords generic Plan B with no prescription for $15. You’ll pay a $15 session payment, which can be lined when you have insurance coverage.
These firms additionally promote different gadgets by mail, together with contraception drugs, residence being pregnant checks and condoms.
When You Want Emergency Contraception Proper Now
Time is of the essence with regards to emergency contraception.
For those who want Plan B now, your greatest guess is to go to a close-by drugstore or household planning middle ASAP.
Keep in mind: Plan B and comparable drugs are solely 61% efficient if used inside 48 to 72 hours of unprotected intercourse — and 95% efficient if used inside 24 hours. So the earlier you’re taking it, the higher.
On the retailer, search for generic Plan B or use a $10 off coupon to save cash — with out sacrificing time.
Yow will discover Plan B by utilizing this tool on the corporate’s website, which notes retailers with curbside pickup and same-day supply choices.
Emergency contraception is authorized in all 50 states as of July 2022.
No prescription or ID is required to purchase the morning-after capsule. It doesn’t matter how previous you’re or what your gender is.
Nonetheless, finding emergency contraception pills isn’t at all times straightforward.
Pharmacies throughout the nation have positioned order limits on emergency contraceptives, whereas others are struggling to maintain the drugs in inventory as demand rises.
To complicate issues extra, pharmacists in six states are allowed to refuse to dispense contraception for any purpose, together with private beliefs, in accordance with knowledge compiled by the Guttmacher Institute.
Even when a retailer is stocked, it could maintain the morning-after capsule locked as much as forestall theft or behind the pharmacy counter.
For those who don’t see Plan B within the household planning aisle of a retailer, ask the pharmacist the place to seek out it.
Rachel Christian is a Licensed Educator in Private Finance and a senior author for The PNW.