While you may not be able to prevent an embarrassing prom photo from popping up on Facebook today (#TBT), thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many women are able to access basic preventive health care services that were previously out of reach. At least for now.
The ACA requires health insurance plans to cover a wide range of preventive services without co-pays, deductibles or other out-of-pocket costs because its authors recognized that these services are critical to women’s health. From well-woman visits, to breastfeeding support, counseling and equipment to sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening and counseling to contraceptive methods and counseling, insured women have access to critical preventive health services at no cost under the ACA.
But, we’re closer than you might think to losing these protections and going back to the days when preventive care was simply too expensive for many women.
Last week, Congress took the first step toward repealing parts of the ACA. By passing a budget resolution calling for ACA repeal, Republicans in Congress have doubled down on their threat to take health insurance away from 30 million people. Even those who manage to keep their coverage may once again face steep financial barriers — in the forms of copays and deductibles — to accessing preventive care. Simply put, fully repealing the ACA will put preventive care financially out of reach for millions of women.
In fact, fully repealing the ACA would take us back to the time when women struggled to afford basic health services — the preventive care that is so important to achieving and maintaining good health.
Join us in telling Congress that we’re not interested in throwing back to the days when women canceled their ob-gyn visits because they couldn’t afford the copays or had to choose between filling a birth control prescription or filling the family’s gas tank. Attempts to unravel the ACA not only put women’s health at risk, but also threaten our economic security.
Take action: Use WeTweet.org today to tell your elected officials to reject any attacks on the ACA (and Planned Parenthood too). Women’s health is at stake!
