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

Coalition Action Materials | Organizational Sign On Letter to Senate: Oppose the Blunt Amendment

February 15, 2012

The undersigned organizations are opposed to the amendment introduced by Senator Roy Blunt (RMO) that would jeopardize quality health insurance coverage for millions of people in this country.

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Fact Sheet | The Rubio-Manchin Bill Would Allow Any Employer to Take Away Women’s Insurance Coverage of Contraception, Harming the Health of Women and Their Families

February 13, 2012

The Rubio-Manchin Bill, S. 2092, introduced in the Senate on February 9, 2012, allows any corporation of any type, any other entity of any type, or any individual to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage and related services on the basis of religious beliefs or moral convictions. The bill would take away the right of millions of women to have any insurance coverage for contraception, based on an employer or health plan’s religious or moral beliefs – whether affiliated or not with any religious entity.

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Fact Sheet | Title VII Requires Covered Employers to Provide Contraceptive Coverage

February 09, 2012

For a PDF version of this fact sheet with footnotes see below.

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Fact Sheet | The Rubio Bill Would Allow Any Employer to Take Away Women’s Insurance Coverage of Contraception, Harming the Health of Women and Their Families

February 09, 2012

The Rubio Bill, S. 2043, introduced in the Senate in January 2012, allows any corporation of any type, any other entity of any type, or any individual to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage and services to their employees on the basis of religious beliefs.  Called the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012,” it would take away the right of millions of women to have any insurance coverage for contraception, based on an employer or health plan’s religious beliefs – whether affiliated or not with any religious entity.

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Webinars & Presentations | February 2012 Reform Matters Webinar Agenda

February 08, 2012

The February 2012 Reform Matters Webinar will be a discussion about the roles of agents, brokers and navigators in the health insurance exchanges.

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