But who pays for the plethora of birth-control options is a different matter altogether. Daniel Hays, a fourth-year pharmacy graduate student at the University of Minnesota, had a vasectomy because he said his reproductive health was his own responsibility. A few months later, Hays began receiving bills for a procedure he thought he had already paid for with student services fees. Men should have that option, and it should be affordable. Because he said his motives for undergoing the procedure were similar to those of some woman who use birth control, he was disappointed that University insurance covered many women's birth-control options but not the option he chose.
Women have the choice to take birth control into their own hands.
Gailon Rosen, Boynton Health Service director of operations, said the coverage does not discriminate against males. Neither is covered by student insurance. But Norplants, devices inserted under women's skin, are covered even though they cost slightly less than a vasectomy, Rosen said. The difference for the insurer, he explained, isn't in cost, but procedure. It is an invasive procedure, but we don't classify it as surgery.