Italy: Contraceptive pills will be free in the future

In Italy, women of all ages can take contraceptive pills for free. A committee of the Italian drug agency Aifa decided late on Friday to include the contraceptive pill in the list of free medicines, as the chair of the expert panel, Giovanna Scroccaro, said in an interview with the health portal “Quotidiano Sanità”.

Within three categories of contraceptives, the authority evaluated the cheapest products that will be made available free of charge in the future. The total costs for the state treasury are estimated at approximately 140 million euros per year.

According to Scroccaro, this should appeal especially to women who have previously avoided this type of birth control for cost reasons. “This is an important decision that allows us to expand the target group of women who today may find these contraceptives too expensive and therefore do not use them,” said Scroccaro. The use of contraceptives, especially the contraceptive pill, has always been low in Italy compared to other EU countries.

The so-called “pre-exposure prophylaxis” (PrEP) for HIV prevention should also be free in the future. This is a drug commonly used to treat HIV. HIV-negative people take the drug to avoid catching the virus. According to Scroccaro, prevention is much cheaper than treating an infection. (sda/dpa)