CVS counters Texas ‘tampon tax’ with 25% off of menstrual products

CVS Health will scale back the fee of its branded menstrual products by 25% in Texas to offset a state “tampon tax.”

The value discount will happen in 12 states the place the corporate mentioned it may possibly legally pay on behalf of the patron. CVS Health will even accomplice with nationwide organizations working to get rid of taxes on menstrual products in some two dozen different states, the corporate mentioned.

Starting this month, CVS can pay the tax on interval products purchased on-line or in-store in Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The transfer isn’t uncommon for CVS, which has taken stances on health-related points previously, mentioned Jake White, vice chairman of merchandising and client well being care. He cited the corporate’s elimination of tobacco products from its shops and altered photographs from its in-store and on-line magnificence ads.

“We think that, in the industry, there’s been sort of a one size fits all approach to health care, and men’s and women’s issues are treated similarly,” White mentioned. “But really, women’s unique health challenges are historically underrecognized and underappreciated.”

The Texas Menstrual Equity Coalition argues that pads and tampons ought to be thought of wound care products like bandages and eye patches, which aren’t topic to tax. In August, Gov. Greg Abbott, Comptroller Glenn Hegar and others mentioned they help eradicating the tax, a measure that has stalled within the Texas Legislature for six years.

Hegar’s workplace estimated the state would lose out on round $28.6 million in income over the subsequent two years by eliminating the tax. Hegar mentioned that’s a small quantity relative to the state’s total income outlook. The subsequent state legislative session begins in January.

CVS additionally mentioned it’ll guarantee equitable pricing for males’s and ladies’s products, like razors and shaving cream. The MinuteClinic at CVS will provide new menstrual, contraception and menopause providers in most states seven days every week for a range of ladies’s well being providers, from coronary heart well being and thyroid monitoring to contraception consultations and behavioral well being assessments

“The reality is that women experience conditions that are unique to them, their physiology, their life stage,” White mentioned. “And given these sort of serious health gaps in care and answers to these systemic issues, we felt we needed to take action.”

The firm mentioned its survey exhibits that 45% of these with durations are harassed repeatedly about affording interval products.

This summer time, supply chain problems led to a scarcity of tampons and that reignited a push to cease taxing interval products.

“Some of the challenges in supply chain have really just made this initiative internally resonate even more with the work that we’re doing,” White mentioned.

Last month, CVS purchased Dallas-based Signify Health in a deal valued at $8 billion. CVS received a bidding battle for the corporate that additionally concerned UnitedHealth, Amazon and Option Care Health.