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.

 Read more...

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 | 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.

 Read more...

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.

 Read more...

More Resources

Fact Sheet | Women’s Preventive Services in the Affordable Care Act: Frequently Asked Questions

February 01, 2013

The health care law makes preventive care more accessible and affordable to millions of Americans. This is especially important to women, who are more likely than men to go without necessary health care, including preventive care, because of cost. To help address these cost barriers and make sure all women have access to preventive health care, the health care law requires all new and non-grandfathered private insurance plans to cover a wide range of preventive services without co-payments or other cost sharing requirements.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | How To Find Out If Your Health Plan Is Covering Women’s Preventive Services with No Co-Pay, as Required by the Health Care Law

January 22, 2013

Your health plan should be providing coverage for the women’s preventive services with no cost-sharing, if your plan is not grandfathered.* The best way to find out for sure that you have coverage for the women’s preventive services without cost sharing and to get information on how these services will be covered is to call your insurance company.

Below is a phone script for you to use when talking to your insurance company. ( If you are not getting the answers you need, call the National Women’s Law Center PILL4US hotline at 1-866-PILL4US or email pill4us@nwlc.org. We are here to help you if you aren’t getting the women’s preventive health services without a co-pay, as required by the health care law.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | 40 Threats to A Woman’s Right to Decide Whether to Have an Abortion

January 18, 2013

January 22, 2013, is the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, this historic Supreme Court decision and the fundamental constitutional right to abortion that it confirmed have been under ever-increasing attack. The following items summarize 40 of the current threats to Roe and to a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion.

 Read more...

Webinars & Presentations | 2012 Reform Matters Conference Call Agendas

November 15, 2012

The Reform Matters conference calls are monthly conversations among women's health care and reproductive rights advocates to focus on health care reform policy at the state and federal levels, provide an on-going forum to learn from one another, and share experiences and questions that have come up in addressing various health care reform proposals. Calls take place the second Thursday of every month. This resource links to all of the Reform Matters agendas for the year 2012.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | Women and the Health Care Law in the United States

November 08, 2012

The health care law, also known as the Affordable Care Act, protects women from discriminatory health insurance practices, makes health coverage more affordable and easier to obtain, and improves access to many of the health services women need. Approximately 17 million women will gain coverage because of the Affordable Care Act.  Millions of women already benefit from the new law, and all women will gain important protections when the law is fully implemented in 2014.

 Read more...