Conservative 'Replacement' for Obamacare Would Take Women Backward
By Miriam Berg | Feb. 6, 2015, 5:18 p.m.
Category: Health Care Equity
Despite its misleading title, the “Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility, and Empowerment Act” is just another attempt by conservative politicians to roll back the Affordable Care Act’s critical health benefits and protections for women and families.
This proposal is, at best, an insult to women. At worst, it’s a dangerous effort to strip away coverage for birth control, maternity benefits, mammograms, and other critical preventive health care.
The CARE Act would send women back to the days of:
- Being charged more for health insurance
- Being denied coverage based on so-called “pre-existing conditions” (like a previous pregnancy or abnormal Pap test).
- Paying upwards of $600 a year on copays for birth control (a benefit that saved American women $483 million on birth control pills in the first year alone).
- Having copays for other preventive care (including well-woman exams, immunizations, and cervical cancer screenings), as well as hospital stays, emergency services, maternity and newborn care, and more.
The plan also seeks to block grant Medicaid — a dangerous proposal that could effectively result in cutting off low-income Americans’ access to quality health care.
The Real Story
From birth control with no co-pay to being able to stay on your parents’ health insurance until the age of 26, millions of women, families, and young people — in all 50 states— are benefiting from Obamacare. Check out their stories and share your own on ObamacareWorks.org.
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