Womenstake

Rising to Protect Abortion Care for the Most Vulnerable Women

by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, 
National Women's Law Center

Recently, we told you about how the Administration indicated the intention to apply an abortion coverage ban (or what is in effect the rejected Stupak Amendment) to the newly unveiled pre-existing condition health insurance plans. This ban would prevent women with serious pre-existing medical conditions from getting the abortion coverage they need to protect their health—and will not even allow women the ability to pay for such coverage with their own private premium dollars.

Over 5,000 NWLC supporters took action and called on the Administration to reconsider the decision to exclude the abortion coverage ban in the pre-existing condition health insurance plans. The strong reaction from women's advocates brought great attention to the issue, with prominent articles in national newspapers.

Thank you for your incredible participation and making sure the Administration knows how important including abortion care coverage is in health care reform. We will soon be asking you to send in your comments on the regulation.

In the meantime, NWLC will continue to work to keep you informed about the latest on health care reform that meets the needs of women and their families. And we will continue to work hard to ensure that all women have access to comprehensive reproductive health that includes abortion care.

Your New Healthcare: A Closer Look at Some Major Improvements

by Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst,
and Zoe Bartholomay, Intern,
National Women's Law Center

Until now, access to basic, necessary care has been limited for too many women. However, the new health reform law provides a remedy with provisions that ensure that insurance plans cover the health services women need, without cost barriers.

Our new law provides a national standard for health benefits called the "essential health benefits package". All new individual and small group health plans must meet the standard, meaning they must cover several benefits that have often been been difficult or impossible for women to acquire (especially in individual health plans). These include maternity, mental health, and prescription drug coverage.

Tuesday's Referendum in Missouri Certainly Wasn't about Health Reform

by Lisa Codispoti, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

If you read some of the press accounts of Tuesday's primary election in Missouri, you might think actually that voters approved a referendum on the ballot to reject health reform, for example, the New York Times headline "Missouri Voters Reject Health Law". But that would be wrong. Missouri primary voters did approve a ballot measure concerning one singular aspect from the health reform law. Let's clarify a few things. 

First, the ballot measure was not about the health reform law. The MO measure purports to target one specific piece of the new law—the so-called individual mandate, which is the requirement effective in 2014 that people—unless exempt—take personal responsibility and have health insurance so that we all have lower premium costs. The new health law is so much more than that. So the referendum had nothing to do with any of the law's important requirements, such as the requirement that insurance companies provide free preventative care, or stop charging women higher premiums just because they're women, or dropping people’s coverage when they get sick, or rejecting people due to pre-existing conditions.

Second, a word about turnout and who voted. The referendum occurred during a primary race in Missouri—which was heavily skewed toward Republican races; they outnumbered Democratic primaries races by almost a third. Accordingly, turnout was expected to heavily skew Republican. Given that those who showed up on Tuesday were not representative of the voting public in Missouri, let alone the rest of the country, the results in Missouri have little if any predictive weight about how the few other ballot measures like this might go. 

Finally, the ballot measure was incredibly confusing—with the exact text of the measure as follows:

Shall the Missouri Statutes be amended to:

• Deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance or infringe upon the right to offer or accept direct payment for lawful healthcare services?
• Modify laws regarding the liquidation of certain domestic insurance companies?

If you had to vote on this, would you have known what a yes or no vote meant?

Let's be clear. Passage of Referendum C in Missouri has little practical effect—the health reform law is very much alive. The courts will ultimately decide about the personal responsibility requirement that the Missouri ballot measure addressed. In the mean time, key provisions of the law we all are counting on continue...

Procedural Ruling in Virginia Doesn't Change the Fact that Health Care Reform Benefits Women

by Kelli Garcia, Fellow,
National Women's Law Center

Yesterday, a federal district court in Virginia issued a procedural decision that will allow a law suit challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) filed by Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to proceed. This decision was merely procedural and says nothing about the merits of the Virginia Attorney General's claim that the requirement that individuals purchase insurance or pay a fine beginning in 2014 is unconstitutional. Judge Hudson simply found that the court will hear further arguments.

As this lawsuit proceeds, it is important to remember the real lives that will be improved by the ACA. Right now, insurance companies can refuse to sell insurance to adults that have diseases such as breast or ovarian cancer, or who had a disease or medical procedure in the past, such as having had a c-section or even for having been raped. Even when people with pre-existing conditions can find insurance, the rates are often unaffordable. Women in particular will be helped by the ACA's ban on pre-existing condition exclusions and guaranteed issue requirement (e.g. a requirement that insurance companies sell health insurance to anyone who applies), because women are more likely than men to suffer from chronic conditions. 

What Health Reform Means for Access to Abortion

by Micole Allekotte, Health Fellow,
and and Zoe Bartholomay, Intern,
National Women's Law Center

Under the new health reform law, the Affordable Care Act, it will become more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to obtain insurance that covers abortion. 

Under the Affordable Care Act, private insurance companies are allowed to cover abortion. However, if a company covers abortions beyond the Hyde Amendment, which allows federal funding for abortions to save the woman's life or where the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, the company must not only segregate government funds from private premiums, it must also collect two payments from individual consumers and segregate the private premium money into two accounts. The effect? Higher administrative costs for insurance companies that want to cover abortion (even if they only want to cover abortions to protect the woman's health) and higher costs for consumers. This additional administrative hurdle is a disincentive put in place to discourage abortion coverage from being offered.

Census Data Paints a Bleak Picture of Insurance Rates in U.S. Counties

by Danielle Garrett, Fellow,
National Women's Law Center

This Tuesday, the U.S. Census Bureau released county level health insurance estimates for 2007. While many of us are familiar with the figure of 46 million—the total number of uninsured in the U.S.—this data allows us to dig deeper, looking at the number of uninsured in individual counties and even breaking that data down by race, age, and income.

Policy nerds like myself love data, so I was anxious to go on the Census Bureau's website and start playing with the maps and interactive tables. My excitement over the data subsided as the reality of the numbers set in. In Travis County Texas, where I spent time as a graduate student at the University of Texas-Austin, more than 25 percent of women aged 18-64 are uninsured. Austin had seemed to me a fun and carefree city filled with college students, high-tech businesses, and talented musicians. I lived there for two years and had no idea that 1 in 4 women were uninsured. Sadly, a closer look revealed that Travis County wasn't anywhere near the worst in the state. In some Texas counties more than 45 percent of women lack health insurance! Surely, I figured, I could count on my native Virginia for good news, but 15.4 percent of Virginia women lack health insurance. While this number is below the national average, it is still too high for my liking.

I encourage you to go to the Census' website and take a look yourself. How many women in your home state or college town lack health insurance? If you're like me, you will be surprised and disappointed by the answer. Thankfully though, help is on the way. Thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Americans who hadn't been able to obtain health insurance due to preexisting conditions can now sign up for a new Preexisting Conditions Insurance Plan. By 2014, all states will expand their Medicaid programs to cover 16 million more people across the country. Once all of the components of health reform are implemented, 32 million more Americans will be insured, meaning that the numbers won't look nearly as bleak in the coming years.

Does the New Health Care Reform Law's "Under 26" Provision Help You or Someone You Love? Share Your Story!

by Stephanie Drahan, Outreach Associate
National Women's Law Center

As we like to repeat, in March, a historic health care reform law passed! In September, many of the provisions will start going into effect, including one of the most popular: the "under 26" or dependent coverage provision. 

This provision allows young adults who are under 26 and do not have job-based health insurance to stay on their parents' insurance plan until they turn 26. This gives lots of young adults some needed flexibility. They can hold out for that "dream" job. They can take that job that doesn't offer insurance, but provides them with irreplaceable experience. Or they can work in a job that doesn't offer health insurance, but does pay the bills while they intern or volunteer while looking for that "dream" job. How will this provision impact you? We want to hear your story!

I graduated from college—on time—at 22. My insurance was dropped about 10 days later. Upon graduation, my only plan was to enjoy my final summer, move to Boston, and start looking for jobs in the Fall. Unfortunately, that dream job did not come along right away, and instead I worked in a restaurant while volunteering at local reproductive rights organizations.

Stupak Amendment Lives

by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, 
National Women's Law Center

You are not having a moment of déjà vu. This is real. This is actually happening.

Tell the Administration to reconsider the harmful decision to undermine women’s reproductive health.

Earlier this year, women around the country stood up and spoke out against the Stupak Amendment, which would have prohibited women from obtaining coverage of abortion care, even with their own, private funds.

But recently, the Administration has indicated the intention to apply what is in effect the rejected Stupak Amendment to the newly unveiled pre-existing condition health insurance plans. This ban will prevent women with serious pre-existing medical conditions from getting the abortion coverage they need to protect their health — and will not even allow women the ability to pay for such coverage with their own private premium dollars.

Tell the Administration to reconsider this decision and stand up for the health of these vulnerable women.

Sex Discrimination Happens in Health Care - Has it Happened to You?

by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, 
National Women's Law Center

How could insurance companies get away with charging women more than men for the same health coverage? Before President Obama signed the new health care reform law, it was legal to discriminate against women in an insurance company office, a doctor’s office, hospital or other health care settings.

The new health care reform law ends those days immediately. One of our victories in the new health reform law includes a landmark provision that is the first ever federal prohibition on sex discrimination in health care.

But as policy makers write new rules to implement the law, we need your help to make policy makers understand the discrimination women have faced in health care settings — share your story with us today. 

The new provision in the health care reform law bans discrimination by federally funded or operated health programs, including insurance companies, on the basis of race, national origin, disability, age, or sex. Beyond being the first federal prohibition on sex discrimination in health care, the law is a more expansive ban against discrimination based on race, national origin, disability and age than had previously existed.

But policy makers need to understand the daily struggles women face — they need to hear about your discrimination experience at the hospital, in your doctor’s office, or in any other health care setting. Share your story today and help us make sure discrimination against women in health care ends once and for all. 

Fewer Co-Pays on Preventive Care: Another Victory for Women's Health

by Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst,
and Zoe Bartholomay, Intern,
National Women's Law Center

Another good thing coming from our new health reform law is much-needed support for women's preventive care! For too long, co-pays have kept low-income women from seeking preventive care for themselves and their children. 

Although women are more likely than men to seek preventive care, they are also more likely to forego this care due to cost. Co-pays have been shown to deter women from obtaining everything from dental work to vital cancer screenings.

Fortunately, a provision taking effect as early as September will provide free preventive services and screenings for women and free immunizations and screenings for children!

Improvements in Medicaid's (the insurance program for low-income people) preventive coverage are also on the way, and are especially important for women, since women account for about three-quarters of all adults in that program. 

For instance, this October, more pregnant women on Medicaid will gain access to comprehensive tobacco addiction cessation services for free, including counseling and both prescription and over-the-counter treatments.

For more details on health reform and preventive care for women, as well as many other issues, check out our Reform Matters Factsheets.