Health Care Reform

The Affordable Care Act provides vitally important advances for the health of women and their families.  As the law is implemented on the state and federal levels, and as more Americans gain access to health insurance, we’re working to ensure that new health care law benefits women as part of our effort to improve women’s health.

Highlights

Fact Sheet | Strong Public Support Continues for States to Accept Federal Funds to Cover More Uninsured People Through Medicaid

April 9, 2013

A new national survey sponsored by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the National Women’s Law Center shows strong support among adults 18 and older for their states to accept federal dollars that have been allocated to cover more uninsured people through Medicaid.  The survey, conducted March 15-19, 2013 among 1,016 adults 18 and older, has a margin of error of + 4 percentage points.

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Legal Briefs & Testimony | NWLC Amicus Briefs Supporting the Contraceptive Coverage Benefit

April 30, 2013

The Center is filing friend of the court briefs in lawsuits challenging the federal contraceptive coverage benefit, brought by employers who want to deny their employees this important benefit.  These cases involve suits brought under the First Amendment to the US Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  These cases will decide whether a boss’s religious beliefs trump women’s health and women’s access to the health care they need.

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Fact Sheet | Women’s Access to Preventive Services Affirmed by HHS

February 22, 2013

On February 20, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services released a set of Frequently Asked Questions which clarified many issues related to implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s preventive services requirement.  The FAQ is an important step towards ensuring that insurance plans and issuers implement the Women’s Preventive Health Services provision so that women get the comprehensive and affordable services guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act.  While the FAQ leaves some implementation questions unanswered, the National Women’s Law Center is pleased that the Department addressed several major issues to make sure that women have the coverage required by the law.  The charts below summarize implementation issues and how the FAQ responds to them.

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Fact Sheet | What the Medicaid Eligibility Expansion Means for Women

November 5, 2012

The Medicaid eligibility expansion is a crucial part of the health care law. Starting in 2014, 15 million uninsured Americans, including 7 million women will be newly eligible for Medicaid coverage.  Medicaid is an effective program that has the potential to improve the health and economic wellbeing of millions of American women while at the same time saving states money and creating jobs. Medicaid is and will continue to be a crucial source of health care for low-income women in America and it is vital to women’s health that states move forward with the Medicaid eligibility expansion. In this issue brief, we will examine why the current Medicaid program is important to women and why the Medicaid expansion is a good deal for women and states.

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More Resources

Legal Briefs & Testimony | NWLC Amicus Briefs Supporting the Contraceptive Coverage Benefit

April 30, 2013

The Center is filing friend of the court briefs in lawsuits challenging the federal contraceptive coverage benefit, brought by employers who want to deny their employees this important benefit.  These cases involve suits brought under the First Amendment to the US Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  These cases will decide whether a boss’s religious beliefs trump women’s health and women’s access to the health care they need.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | State Bans on Insurance Coverage of Abortion Endanger Women’s Health and Take Health Benefits Away from Women

April 26, 2013

The health care law goes a long way toward improving women’s health and addressing the discrimination women have faced in the health insurance market. Unfortunately however, the health care law explicitly allows states to pass laws banning private insurance coverage of abortion in any exchange set up in their state. State politicians who want abortion to be illegal have wasted no time pushing bans on insurance coverage of abortion, making abortion unaffordable and interfering with a woman’s ability to make her own health care decisions.

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Fact Sheet | Strong Public Support Continues for States to Accept Federal Funds to Cover More Uninsured People Through Medicaid

April 09, 2013

A new national survey sponsored by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the National Women’s Law Center shows strong support among adults 18 and older for their states to accept federal dollars that have been allocated to cover more uninsured people through Medicaid.  The survey, conducted March 15-19, 2013 among 1,016 adults 18 and older, has a margin of error of + 4 percentage points.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | State by State: The Affordable Care Act and Covering More Women and Families in Medicaid

March 22, 2013

The option to cover more people through the Medicaid program is a crucial part of the health care law. Starting in 2014, 15 million uninsured Americans, including 7 million women could be newly eligible for Medicaid coverage should all states accept the federal money included in the Affordable Care Act to support this coverage. These state by state fact sheets provide useful data on how many women could be eligible for coverage and how states stand to gain by accepting the federal money.

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Fact Sheet | I'm A Woman Who Owns A Small Business

March 13, 2013

The  health care law has many benefits for women, including women like you who owns a small business. The fact sheet shares some of the ways that the new law will help.

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