Statement: Planned Parenthood Action Fund on Census Bureau Report
For Immediate Release: Jan. 27, 2013
Census Bureau Report Underscores Need to
Reelect President Obama
Number of Uninsured Americans Fell for the First Time in Four Years Thanks to the Affordable Care Act
Washington, DC — Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, issued a statement in response to the Census Bureau report released today showing that the number of uninsured Americans fell for the first time in four years as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act.
“This report demonstrates that the Affordable Care Act is providing immediate and measurable benefits for previously uninsured Americans — in direct contradiction to the claims being made by Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “While the President is moving our country forward, Mitt Romney has pledged to turn back the clock for women and would reverse this incredible progress. Women and their families need a president who will continue to fight for their access to affordable health care, not a politician who puts politics before the health of women and their families.
“The Affordable Care Act is the greatest advance in women’s health in a generation, providing concrete benefits for women, including access to birth control and cancer screenings without co-pays, guaranteed direct access to ob/gyn providers without referrals, and an end to discriminatory practices against women, such as charging women higher premiums and denying coverage for ‘pre-existing conditions.’
“Thanks to President Obama, being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition. And all the way until Election Day, we’ll be working hard to make clear how harmful and out-of-touch the Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan agenda is on women’s health,” Laguens said.
Millions of Americans stand to benefit from the Affordable Care Act:
• In August, the birth control benefit went into effect, making birth control available without co-pays or deductibles. On average, women spend up to $600 a year on birth control.
• Millions more young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance, in addition to the 3.1 million who have already gained that coverage under the law.
• Millions of women will gain access to no-cost preventive health screenings, in addition to the more than 45 million women who have already benefited from these preventive health reforms.
• 12.8 million women of reproductive age will gain access to insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “These data further suggest that federal policies were responsible for the gains in coverage. The largest increase in coverage, according to the CDC data, occurred among young adults, a group benefiting from an Affordable Care Act (ACA) provision allowing adult children up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ private insurance plans.”
You can find the full Census report at this link: http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf