This is a guest post from Raising Women’s Voices.
This week is National Women’s Health Week, when women are specifically encouraged to make health a top priority. Women’s health is not just for women though – it is for all of us. And we should all be thankful that the women in our lives can now get the care they need thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
While moms like Robyn from Maryland and Diana from Illinois see the benefits of the law through the care their children get, the ACA works for all women across our lifespans. Thanks to the ACA, women like Jasmine and Joann from Indiana have access to preventive care such as mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and tobacco use screening and interventions, without co-pays. Women trying to become pregnant have access to folic acid supplements, and women who are already pregnant can get screened for anemia without additional costs.
Starting on August 1, 2012, even more preventive services will be covered without co-pays. Daughters, like Katie from Illinois, will be able to get the comprehensive contraceptive care they need, without a co-pay and without the need for a medical diagnosis necessitating the prescription. They will also get screening and counseling for intimate partner violence and for sexually transmitted infections. Mothers-to-be will get screening for gestational diabetes, and new mothers will get the breastfeeding counseling and equipment they need without co-pays.
Full implementation of the ACA will also produce benefits for women. Take Sara from Wisconsin for example. Sarah has a blood clotting disorder, which could cause some insurance companies to deny her coverage. In 2014, this will become illegal, and Sara (and her family) will have the security in knowing that she will get the coverage she needs despite her pre-existing condition. Additionally, with full implementation of the law, Sara won’t have to worry about her insurance company charging her more money simply because she is a woman. In 2014, the ACA will make “gender rating” illegal in all 50 states.
With all of these benefits available to women now or available to women soon, it is important that the women in our lives know about this wonderful law. In honor of National Women’s Health Week, we at Raising Women’s Voices encourage you to talk to a woman you know and let her know about how the ACA is important to her. While you are together, take a picture and upload it to our MamaCare site. Tell us what benefit helps her the most and we’ll add it to our list of women helped by the ACA!
-- Maryanne Tomazic, Raising Women’s Voices Field Coordinator