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A guide to using HSA/FSA for Period Products | + a look at the new Walgreens Cup - YouTube
Channel: Put A Cup In It
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- If you haven't heard the good news,
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you can buy a menstrual cup
or other menstrual products
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with your health savings or
Flexible Savings Accounts.
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So if you have one of these,
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you can go to a store or be
reimbursed for one of these.
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If you have insurance,
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you probably have something
called a Health Savings Account
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or a Flexible Spending Account.
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If so you have a debit
card that you can use
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for qualifying purchases
for your healthcare needs.
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Up until very recently that did
not include period products,
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but after a lot of legislation
attempts and lobbying,
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now we have the CARES Act.
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And in the CARES Act in
section 3702 menstrual care
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and menstrual hygiene products
such as tampons and pads,
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and yes, even menstrual cups,
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and it appears also period underwear
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can be covered by your HSA card.
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So what this means is that
if you need to buy a cup
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or you need to replace your cup,
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or you need to buy
tampons or pads or liners,
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period underwear, sponges,
really anything for your period,
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you should be able to be reimbursed.
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Now, what is going to be
a challenge is being able
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to directly use this card in a store
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or on a web store and
purchase a menstrual cup.
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Now, I won't pretend to
be an expert on HSA or FSA
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or insurance, or really anything official
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because that is my downfall
I'm not a very good adult,
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but I'll state that upfront.
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So what you'll need to do
is decide where you want
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to purchase your cup and what kind of
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work you wanna do to get reimbursed.
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If you just want to walk into a store
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and use your HSA card and purchase a cup,
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you're gonna really
need to go to a pharmacy
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like a Walgreens or CVS.
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I actually went for my
very first in a store trip
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since this whole COVID thing and purchased
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the Walgreens Cup a few
weeks ago with my HSA card,
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it was super painless,
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I just walked up, she scanned it
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and I asked a question like,
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"should this be covered under my card?"
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She said, "it should be."
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And I scanned the card
and it went through.
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So what I'm learning is that really any
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of the period products
that are in a pharmacy,
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just seem to be categorized
in a way that if you wanted
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an INTIMINA Cup or a DivaCup
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or this perplexing new
Walgreens' Generic Cup,
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any of those should be
covered out of the gate.
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I don't know if non-pharmacy retailers
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have that same sort of categorization.
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What I have learned is
that menstrual cup brands
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have to file certain paperwork
to be in this database
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of products so that
they can take HSA cards
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on their web stores.
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And also I'm sure that filters
down into other retailers.
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This also requires a fee and so for now,
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it looks like there really aren't many,
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if any brands except for DivaCup
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that have this magical HSA status.
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In fact, if you go to amazon.com,
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if you search for menstrual
cups or menstrual products,
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and then you check a little
box that says HSA approved,
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FSA approved, it will filter those results
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that you can use your HSA
or FSA spending accounts on,
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but only the DivaCup shows up.
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So we do have a little ways to go.
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Since this is such a new thing,
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it does look like it will take time
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for some of the other brands to catch up.
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So more of the boutique brands
like Hello Cup or Saalt Cup,
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or Kind Cup or Dot Cup or
whoever those are gonna take
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some time if they even
decide it's worth it.
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Now for you, you can still buy
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any of those menstrual cup
brands and be reimbursed.
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It's just the process
of saving your receipts
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and submitting a reimbursement request
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or reimbursing yourself
however your plan works
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and make sure you keep that
receipt for your tax records,
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just in case you get audited,
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because you do wanna be able to prove
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that you were spending your
flexible spending funds
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on actual products that
qualified through their long list
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of what is qualified and that you did not
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tell a little white lie on your records.
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One of the other things that I've learned
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through different community members
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who have gone through
this process already,
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is that a lot of the
representatives who are pushing
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or handling these requests and saying,
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oh yeah, this is good, you're, you know,
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you can be reimbursed, everything's fine.
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And again, this depends
on how your plan works.
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I don't know if every plan oversees this
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because it also looks
like some of it is just
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a self-honor system where
you reimburse yourself
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and say, yeah, that was medical
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and then if you get
caught, you're in trouble.
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So if you have someone approving,
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you will want to keep a note and say,
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Section 3702 in the CARES Act,
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which was passed in March,
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says that period products
of any kind, it looks like,
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you know, so far even
I saw free to products
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like the Abady that was covered.
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So it does seem like the categorization
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of what they're considering
approved is pretty wide.
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So if it is a period product,
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then it should be approved under this act.
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So as long as you can
argue it's a period product
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point two Section 3702
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you should be able to get that approved.
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This is really part of
a larger plan in getting
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the taxes removed from period products,
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because we are taxed on in most states,
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still our period products for someone
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who has a period every
month, we cannot stop them,
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we get them for most of us every month.
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And you know, that is a
product we have to buy
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whether we want to or not
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and whether we have the funds or not.
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And since we don't have a
free-for-everyone system,
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this can make it a little
easier for a lot of people
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to get a menstrual cup.
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If you have the money in your
Flexible Spending Accounts
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that isn't already allocated
for bigger medical expenses,
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but you know, it really depends sometimes
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at the end of the year,
we're like, oh my gosh,
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we didn't spend anything in our accounts
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and sometimes we have bigger expenses.
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Like my son is getting braces next week.
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So that is gonna (sucking)
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immediately suck up any and all of our
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spending account funds.
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So hopefully this is a smaller
part of a larger initiative
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and we're seeing in countries like the UK,
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where we are giving all students access
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to free period products,
which includes cups,
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that was a Moon Cup initiative.
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So they can get Moon Cups in the UK,
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through their schools
and then New Zealand.
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So the prime minister
of New Zealand, Jacinda
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who is someone who is
I'm sure in her lifetime
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experienced periods she
just recently started
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the work to get period products provided
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to schools in all of New Zealand.
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So it's starting small and they're going
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to expand it to everywhere.
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So these are just, again,
really exciting developments
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for period equity.
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Since this is a somewhat
of a informational,
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not super fun, not like the Amy Cup video,
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which everyone seem to
really enjoy watching me
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do it to myself so I guess
I should do that more often.
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I did actually wanna show you
the Walgreens Generic Cup,
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because this is the first store-branded
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generic menstrual cup that
has ever been released.
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Now, a lot of people in
Canada got all up in my DMs
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when I said this, because
they know of a generic cup
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that is also a kind of a
DivaCup knockoff called Life.
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But that is sold in multiple pharmacies
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and different stores.
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This is the first that
actually has Walgreens on it.
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So, you know, this is opening
the doors for a public's cup
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or a CVS or a Kroger and you know,
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a lot of stores have their
versions of everything.
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They have their acne cream,
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they have their baby diapers and whatever.
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So what this looks like from
the outside is ridiculous.
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And everyone is terrified
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because it looks like this
weird bowl shape, you know,
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quickly talking about the box,
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Walgreens labels menstrual
cups like they are dangerous
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and not to be used by everyone.
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So it says ages 18 to 30 for small size,
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and then medium is over
age 30 or heavy flow.
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So it's basically implying
if you're under 18,
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you cannot use a menstrual cup.
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This is false, don't let
any packaging tell you that
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you can use a cup at any age.
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So they say, "please consult
a doctor before use,"
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but they do say no more than 12 hours,
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which is standard and of course,
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gives you a lot of these ingredients lists
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that don't typically appear on
normal menstrual cup brands,
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or even boutique brands, things like that.
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So one menstrual cup.
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Now here's what it looks like
from this weird package design
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it looks like a bowl with no stem.
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And this is actually what it looks like.
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Hold it against my hand.
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So it is just a really basic,
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(pressing)
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it's that tacky,
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sticky silicone that's not
my favorite, but, it's fine.
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It doesn't have a lot of
capacity for the small it says.
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It looks like it has
a line for 15 so maybe
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it actually goes up to 20
and then a flat regular stem.
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So it looks a lot like
a very tapered Lunette,
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really basic shape, nothing fancy.
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This is $30, I forgot to say that.
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$30 for a very basic generic cup.
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But it is, oh, there's my cat.
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But it is FDA cleared.
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It's actually on the list
under the Walgreens brand name.
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So I expect they'll probably run
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some sort of coupons for it.
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Oh, there's my cat.
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I expect they'll run some
sort of discount for this
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because it is only $10 less than DivaCup
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in a Walgreens store on shelf.
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So they sit side by
side and then, you know,
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you could get lots of branding
cups for less than $30.
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So you could go and get a
Lena Cup or a Saalt Cup.
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And all of those are gonna be cheaper
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than this generic plain Walgreens Cup.
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hi cutie.
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Look at my baby, she's
so cute and so chunky.
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Anyway.
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I think that's everything I
needed to address in this video.
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I just wanted to give people an idea
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if they haven't already heard
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that you can get menstrual cups covered
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through your Flexible Spending Accounts,
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which is exciting news
for people who need a cup
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or who wanna try a cup
and haven't had the funds
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or who need to replace the cup.
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And of course you can also use
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these for other periods supplies.
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So if you need liners or
if you need to buy tampons,
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you know, if you have the money to burn,
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some people need to burn
it at a certain point.
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Maybe use it and buy products
and donate to a shelter
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or other charities.
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So, there's just different ways
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you can use this information.
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So I think that's it, I'm rubbing my cat
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if it looks like my hands
are doing something weird.
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(laughing)
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If you haven't already,
please make sure you subscribe
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to Put A Cup In It here
on YouTube so you can get
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more of whatever this is.
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(laughing)
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And find us on all of our
social media channels.
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We're @PUTACUPINIT, @PUTACUPINIT,
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if you need, or want help
with your menstrual cups
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or hey, maybe you have questions about
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how to do this whole HSA thing,
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find us in our group on
Facebook, it's a private group.
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Look for, Put A Cup In It
Community and join us there.
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We'd love to have you.
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Thanks so much, bye.
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Did you know, baap, no.
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For feminine, hmm, no, don't, nope.
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I know they say that, but
I'm not gonna say that.
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Or to saalt.com or wow.
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Can't think of any other brands,
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(giggling) got to blink.
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