“The regulations released by the Obama Administration today are one more crucial step on the road to improved health and health care for all Americans. Giving insured consumers access to essential preventive care at no cost is a central promise of health reform. That promise is now being realized.

This is particularly important to women, who have fewer resources with which to cover co-pays and who tend to coordinate care for their families. When these regulations take effect, all insured women will have access to critical preventive care including mammograms, screenings for cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infections, and the HPV vaccine, which many girls now forego because the cost is prohibitive. These and other preventive services will be available to patients without the co-pays that, until now, have put them out of reach for millions of people.

The next step in making our health care system work better will be to act swiftly to release additional requirements that extend this coverage to the family planning and contraceptive health care that women rely on.”