Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Today is the first of three days of argument before the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the health care law. The Court will ease into the case with a discussion not of substance, but timing.

The personal responsibility provision requires individuals (except for those exempt) to have health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty to the IRS. The Anti-Injunction Act, a nineteenth century law, says that you cannot bring a legal challenge to a tax prior to that tax being paid. So the question up today is whether that law applies to the personal responsibility provision. If so, then the courts don’t have the power to hear the constitutional challenges to the provision until 2015, when the IRS penalties actually come due.

We’ve been celebrating and talking about the Affordable Care Act second anniversary all week long, so today I’m going to bring you some non-health-care-related stories. Here’s what you can look forward to: dunks in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, speaking out against street harassment, a new interview that follows up on last week’s bullying documentary on the Cartoon Network, and Amelia Earhart – found at last?

Who says the girls can’t play like the guys? Check out the video of 1-seed Baylor’s Brittney Griner dunking during the Bears’ March 20 NCAAW tournament win vs. 9-seed Florida. Baylor is now headed to the Sweet 16. Brittney’s the second woman to dunk during the NCAAW tournament, and this is the sixth dunk of her college career.

Cool as her moves may be, dunking isn’t Brittney’s favorite. Instead? “My big thing is blocked shots; that's my favorite thing to do.” And you know how the saying goes – offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

Speaking of the NCAAW tourney, in case you need it, here’s the latest bracket.

If you’re following us on Twitter, you probably saw that we participated in a tweetchat yesterday with the White House’s Jon Carson and some friends from MomsRising to celebrate the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

I accompanied Judy Waxman, NWLC’S Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, over to the White House for the tweetchat. We gathered at 2:00 yesterday afternoon and after a quick group photo, we got started and dug into a Twitter conversation about how the health care law is helping women and their families.

Yesterday’s team getting ready to tweet from the White House. From L-R, back row: HHS’s Seth Wainer and Rima Cohen, NWLC’s Danielle Jackson, MomsRising’s Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and Ashley Boyd; front row: NWLC’s Judy Waxman, and White House Director of the Office of Public Engagement Jon Carson. Check out Jon Carson getting a jump on the tweeting!

There were a TON of questions out there on Twitter for us to answer – seriously, tons!

Having a chronic illness is not easy. You have doctor appointments. Prescriptions to fill. Medical bills to sort through. Lab tests. Physical therapy exercises. Special diets. In some ways, a chronic illness can feel like a full-time job.

Ay, there’s the rub.

A chronic illness can feel like a full-time job, but millions of Americans depend on a full-time job for health insurance. So those of us with a chronic illness are often juggling two jobs – the one that pays the bills and provides the insurance and the one that racks up the bills and uses the insurance.

But what are we to do?

The individual insurance market is not a friendly place for the chronically ill. Once I had that first asthma attack as a child, the likelihood of getting coverage in the individual market took a nose dive.

The grass is not always greener on another plan. It’s difficult to give up a good employer sponsored plan when you don’t know what you will end up with. Access to my former employer’s insurance was an important factor in my decision to go to law school at night because I couldn’t take the chance that a student health plan wouldn’t cover my illness.

But things are changing. Read more »

Over the past 23 years I have been lucky enough to have great health coverage and benefits from being a dependent on my parents’ plan. When I was 12 years old I was “lucky” enough to experience what it was really like to be a woman, and it was painful. My father spent many months taking me to the E.R. with both of us assuming that I was some sort of freak-girl, until finally an OB/GYN prescribed a birth control that eliminated the pain.

Because of the health insurance my father receives, I only have to pay $5 a month for my pills, which has been quite the blessing. Not only that but my bi-annual trips to the OB/GYN were affordable for my family. I found myself luckier than some girls I knew who were always struggling when it came to receiving safe, reproductive health care.

This past December I received my Bachelor’s degree and alongside the excitement of being a college graduate, panic struck. Come June, I will have to begin paying back my student loans. Jobs haven’t exactly been thrown at me either, which is why I am thankful for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Read more »

Before interning at the National Women’s Law Center I did not know much or really anything at all about the health care law. Furthermore, I didn’t know that my family was benefitting from it, especially my sister who recently graduated from college.

For the last 6 months, I’ve also been able to observe my sister, Alex’s, transition from college to the real world. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 2011, she decided to work in the non-profit sector. She accepted a one-year fellowship in New York City. Alex moved from New Hampshire to New York on a tight budget, and a small wage, specifically less than $35,000 a year.

Between spending $1,000 a month for rent, plus additional bills for groceries, utilities, and taxes, Alex is not exactly living the life of luxury. While her employer offered health insurance, the plan wasn’t affordable on her salary, and would make a significant dent in her earnings. Many young professionals in Alex’s position would simply elect to forego health insurance to save money. I am sure this would have been the case with my sister if it were not for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Read more »

On the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a reminder: this important law allows me and millions of college students the freedom to make autonomous choices about our future as working Americans.

As is the case for many students nowadays, I’m not guaranteed a job after a graduate. But I can breathe easier knowing that the ACA lets me stay on my parent’s health plan until I work my way up to a paid position with benefits. In the (hopefully short) interim, I can focus on succeeding as a member of the workforce instead of worrying about insurance. Read more »

Call your Senators NOW!

Call 1-888-838-5169 to tell your Senators to oppose the Blunt Amendment because it would eliminate access to no-cost birth control and other critical health care services.

Last week, President Obama announced that he would continue to protect women's access to birth control without co-pays or deductibles regardless of where they work, including at certain religiously-affiliated employers, while accommodating religious institutions' opposition to contraception.

Despite this accommodation, opponents of birth control in Congress are continuing their attacks on the contraceptive coverage requirement and the Affordable Care Act and they're going to vote VERY SOON on the dangerous and harmful Blunt Amendment. Call 1-888-838-5169 now to tell your Senators to reject the Blunt Amendment. 

The Blunt Amendment would, among other things, allow any corporation whose CEO opposes contraception based on his "moral convictions" to deny all coverage of contraception or any other health care service to the company's employees.

We need your help! Call 1-888-838-5169 TODAY to tell your Senators that you support the President's decision on birth control and oppose the Blunt Amendment because it would eliminate your access to no-cost birth control and other critical health care services. Read more »

Yesterday, President Obama made an announcement that took the responsibility from certain religiously-affiliated employers and gave it to insurance companies for covering contraception with no co-pays or deductibles. This accommodation will protect women's access to birth control and without extra cost, regardless of where they work. We will closely monitor the implementation of this new rule and work to make sure that all women have access to this essential health benefit.

However, opponents of birth control in Congress are still focused on taking away access to contraception introducing extreme legislation that threatens health across the board. The pieces of legislation range from allowing any employer, regardless of whether it is a religious entity, to deny coverage of contraception to giving employers the right to refuse coverage of any health care service they find religiously or morally objectionable.

They are playing politics with women's health – and it would hurt everyone. Tell your Senators to reject all extreme legislation that would take away women's access to birth control without a co-pay, and other needed health care. Read more »

I used to think that making a statement on the floor of Congress required showing some respect for the venue in which you are speaking, including refraining from making untrue statements. Yesterday, several members of Congress have proven to me, again, that for some of them this just isn’t the case anymore. When speaking on the House floor today, several members claimed that the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage rule would require employers to cover pills that cause abortions. This is simply false. The rule requires coverage of all FDA-approved contraceptive methods. What is an FDA-approved contraceptive method? That’s easy enough to find right here on the FDA website. Pills, patch, IUDs, etc. The members of the House are probably conflating emergency contraception, which is an FDA-approved contraceptive method, with abortion. But as my colleague Jill Morrison pointed out last week, it’s not. Read more »