Kirsten Sloan, Vice President
In March, the United States Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – the health reform law enacted in 2010. Attorneys general of 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses are challenging the new law.
The National Partnership for Women & Families has joined the National Women’s Law Center and other women’s groups in filing an amicus brief supporting the ACA.
For decades women in the U.S. have been struggling to find and keep affordable health coverage as insurance companies raised premiums based on gender, age or health status, denied coverage for essential health services or dropped coverage altogether when enrollees got sick.
The ACA is progressively putting a stop to those outrageous practices between 2010 and 2014 — and it’s already beginning to deliver for women and their families. We no longer face deductibles or co-pays to get essential preventive services like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings. We are now able to keep our children on our health insurance policies until age 26. Plus, health plans can no longer rescind our coverage or hit us with lifetime caps or low annual limits on coverage just when we need coverage the most.
And more improvements are right around the corner – like, at long last, the elimination of ratings based on gender and health status, and exclusions for pre-existing conditions in insurance policies.
These are changes worth fighting for and the National Partnership for Women & Families will be there every step of the way. We simply cannot let opponents convince the Court to undo the progress that we have made. We owe it to our families. We owe it to ourselves.
The next critical issue is how to make health insurance premiums affordable for each individual, since we will be mandated to have health insurance and pay the premiums. I currently have a very low income, and I can only get an individual health insurance policy. Due to my age, the premiums are far too expensive for me to afford, and yet there are no inexpensive options. There are none I can actually afford.
Thank you for your hard work. Carol
All US citizens should have affordable health care. There is no excuse for the US not to make it possible for people struggling with health care issues to have to go without even basic care.
I think this is progress and everyone in this country should be eligible for necessary medical care care regardless of age, sex, financial status or need.
What is difficult is countering the rifdiculous claims circulating from the extreme Right accusiing “Obamacare” of everything from Socialism to outlawing buttered bread! More clarification should nbe published in EVERY medium as frequently as possible to at least attempt to educate the “lemmings” in the Red states. Simple, positive, and with appropriate references to the Bull are necesary! There is so much misinformation circulating, the even my cardiologist, and a surgeon friend buy in to it!
I believe this is necessary to save the healthcare bill, or we will surely lose it!
Sorry for all my typos… menant to say Bill, not Bull, and THAT even my cardiologist…..
This is so great to hear, it is good to hear that health insurance will really help us be healthy, in sickness and health. Peace, Health, and Harmony to all.
I agree that there needs to be more education about the law, as there is much misinformation. I actually think the US should have universal health care, but our problem today is how do we pay for it? We already pay most of the budget to entitlement programs, Social Security in particular but also things like Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, etc. If the government did a better job of spending our hard earned tax dollars effectively (not overhiring, being able to get rid of underperforming workers, efficiency with the education budget), then we might have more room for things that seem like a no-brainer = making sure all Americans have access to health care. The last caveat is that health care costs are rising, and we need to do a better job of finding out WHY (doctor’s ordering too many and uncessary tests?) so that we can fix this before it breaks our country.