With new preventive health services under an Affordable Care Act requirement that went into effect on Aug. 1, more women may begin seeking health care and screenings.
For plans that begin Aug. 1 or later, most insurers will be required to cover mammograms, cervical cancer screening, and other preventive services without copayments, coinsurance, or deductibles. The covered services are based on recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine in July 2011.
The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 47 million women are in health plans that will now have to cover the services.
http://www.mikulski.senate.gov
Senator Barbara Mikulski, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Senate Democrats and activists announced new women’s health care coverage to begin taking effect August 1 for new insurance plans thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
"This law puts women and their doctors, not insurance companies or the government, in charge of health care decisions," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sponsored a bill that called for the coverage and that eventually was incorporated into the ACA, said that the benefits will end discriminatory insurance practices, where women are "charged more but get less." She added, in a statement: "My amendment, and this law, was always about people, about access, about preventing deadly diseases, and about keeping the doors of doctors’ offices open to the women of America."
The benefit includes a once-yearly well-woman visit, in which the patient can access any or all of more than 20 preventive services. Among those are counseling and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, counseling about the BRCA genetic mutation, osteoporosis screening for women over age 60, a variety of counseling and testing for pregnant women, and breastfeeding support.
"An annual well-woman visit is a fundamental part of medical care and promotes prevention practices, recognizes risk factors for disease, identifies medical problems, and establishes the often life-long patient-physician relationship. This annual visit provides an excellent opportunity for ob.gyns. to counsel patients about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and minimizing health risks," ACOG President James T. Breeden said in a statement.
The coverage also includes contraception, which is defined as all Food and Drug Administration–approved methods and sterilization procedures.
That benefit was lauded by Dr. Breeden. "Planned pregnancies – for which most women require contraception – allow women to optimize their own health before pregnancy and childbirth, leading to healthier pregnancies and healthier babies," he said, adding that unintended pregnancy could worsen a preexisting health condition, such as diabetes, hypertension, or coronary artery disease.
"Planned pregnancies improve the health of children because adequate birth spacing reduces the risk of low birth weight and preterm birth," he added.
Contraception coverage was criticized, however, by others who said it violated religious freedom. "Through this mandate, the administration is promoting an approach to religious freedom that is more grudging and arbitrary than any yet seen in federal law," Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in a letter to members of the House and Senate, sent shortly after the benefits took effect.
The letter urged Congress to overturn this particular benefit and end free contraception coverage.
Cardinal DiNardo noted that Catholic business owners have filed suit – in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Michigan – to block the contraceptive coverage.
In late July, a federal judge in Colorado temporarily blocked the federal government from enforcing the mandate against Hercules Industries, which filed the suit.
Under the law, employers that do not comply can be penalized. But there is an exemption for nonprofit organizations with religious objections to contraceptive coverage. That exemption will last until 2014, when the ACA goes fully into effect.
At that time, among other provisions that will take effect, insurers will no longer be able to limit coverage of preexisting conditions. Women are the "poster children for why we need this," Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) said at a Senate briefing announcing the new preventive services on Aug. 1.
Insurers also will not be allowed to charge women higher premiums based on their gender, he said.