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

Fact Sheet | 2008 Reform Matters Conference Calls

January 05, 2006

Fact Sheet | About the Reform Matters Project

January 05, 2006

Making Real Progress for Women and Health Care

Women are major stakeholders in health care in this country. We play a significant role in the care that our children, partners, or parents receive, not to mention our own health. The health care reform legislation that passed represents vitally important advances for women's health. However, together we'll have to fight to fix the dangerous abortion restrictions that anti-choice Members of Congress pushed through in this legislation.

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Fact Sheet | National Advocates Working on Health Care Reform

January 05, 2006

Several other national organizations and campaigns are doing great work on health care reform.

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Fact Sheet | Reform Matters: Facts & Figures

January 05, 2006

To those of us on the front lines of the fight for comprehensive health care reform - and the many Americans frustrated in their efforts to find affordable, high-quality care - it's undeniable that our health care system is in crisis. The troubling numbers below leave little doubt that while most of the country is struggling to stay healthy and make ends meet, low-income women are disproportionately affected by our health care system's failings.

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Fact Sheet | Reform Matters: Get Involved

January 05, 2006
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