Women's Health [Obama]
Author: Obama for America
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President Obama passed the Affordable Care Act to restore health care as a basic cornerstone of middle-class security in America.
From fair pay to education to access to quality health care, the President's agenda is one that showcases his commitment to ensuring that we provide security to working and middle class families by building an economy where responsibility is rewarded, hard work pays, and everyone plays by the rules.
The importance of women's health
Tackling gender discrimination
Too often, women pay more than men for their health care, and insurance companies have long been free to discriminate based on gender. The Affordable Care Act is cracking down on these practices to make sure all of us pay a fair rate and have access to the services we need.
Women's Health and Birth Control
As part of the Affordable Care Act, starting August 1st, many insurance plans will be required to fully cover birth control without co-pays or deductibles as part of women's preventive care. This step will help more women make health care decisions based on what's best for them—not their insurance company—and could save them hundreds of dollars every year.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced that certain religious organizations, including churches, will be exempt from the rules, and other religious organizations will not have to pay for their insurers to cover birth control.
Here's a look at how the new birth control policy will affect women and religious institutions.
Let us know how the new policy will impact your life.
Get the facts
Preventive Care
Thanks to unprecedented new guidelines in the Affordable Care Act, women will have access to a wide range of preventive health services—mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, and soon birth control—without a co-pay or deductible. The Affordable Care Act will also prevent insurance companies from discriminating against women so that being a woman is no longer considered a pre-existing condition.
Download this fact sheet to learn more about this important victory for women.
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President Obama has proven that he is a strong advocate for women and a defender of the issues that are important to women and their families.
Support for birth control coverage
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- More than half of all Americans already live in the 28 states that require insurance companies to cover birth control.
- Most women—including 98 percent of Catholic women—who have had sex have used birth control, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute.
- Some religiously-affiliated hospitals and universities already provide birth control coverage to their employees.
- A majority of Americans support including birth control coverage in health plans at no cost to women.
- Health care experts like the American Medical Association and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend birth control as a preventive service.
Protecting women's health
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- Under the new provisions in the Affordable Care Act, women will have access to the care and family planning services they need without worrying about the cost.
- Women using birth control reduce their risk of developing ovarian and endometrial cancers to about half the rate of the rest of the population.
Religious employers
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- Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the new law.
- Other non-profit organizations, like religiously affiliated hospitals and universities that employ or serve people regardless of their faiths may qualify for a one-year transition period to prepare for the new law.
Protecting individual religious beliefs
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- No individual health care provider will be forced to prescribe birth control.
- No one will be forced to buy or use birth control.
- Drugs such as RU-486 that cause abortion are not covered by this policy. The President remains committed to maintaining strict limits on federal funding for abortions.
Reducing costs
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- While the monthly cost of birth control for women ranges between $30 and $50, insurers and experts agree that the savings would more than offset the costs.
- It will also save employers money. The National Business Group on Health estimated that employers would pay 15 to 17 percent more not to provide coverage than they would to provide it.
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