Advocacy
Health Reform and You
The task force's current advocacy priority is educating women about the new health care reform law and guidelines for its implementation. As time goes on, we will be focusing on additional health-related issues.
Although the national health care legislation President Obama signed into law in April 2010 (the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act) fell short of what NCWO and many of its affiliates were advocating for, it does provide many positive changes for American women and their families.
There are a number of excellent resources available to help explain the new law and provide a great deal of information about it. Some of these web sites on the issue include the following:
Healthcare.gov (White House site)
The National Women's Law Center
Kaiser Family Foundation Women's Health Insurance Coverage: Fact Sheet
Kaiser Family Foundation's Interactive Implementation Timeline
Kaiser Family Foundation's Boomers Come of Age: Covering Early Retirees and Other 50-64 Year-Olds
Kaiser Family Foundation's Preventive Services Covered by Private Health Plans under the Affordable Care Act (Sept. 1, 2011)
Keeping the Health Plan You Have: The ACA and 'Grandfathered' Health Plans
NCWO, along with many of its affiliates, has been fighting for abortion and contraception coverage under the prevention mandates of the new law. We are allied with Raising Women's Voices to get these covered.
Women's Groups Support Affordable Care Act Before Supreme Court
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 Council of Women's Organizations - and many of its affiliates - have signed on to the National Women's Law Center's amicus brief supporting the ACA.
The 61 women's organizations and civil rights groups are urging the court to reject the constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act's individual responsibility provision.
The NWLC notes that the justices will decide
"whether to respect the decades of precedent supporting the constitutionality of the ACA or rewrite constitutional law." It notes, "should the Court hold that the ACA violates the Constitution, it would have severe consequences for the many women whose health depends on the rights and protections provided by the ACA. Perhaps even more disturbingly, this constitutional revision could threaten a host of other laws important to women, including laws forbidding sex discrimination in employment, housing, and lending. The National Women's Law Center urges the Court to respect precedent and uphold the ACA."
U.S. Women Secure Access to No-Cost Birth Control
Thanks to the work of women's groups and other progressive voices, in late January, we learned that many women will not lose access to no-cost birth control under the health care law.
Until then there had been an "interim" rule that would provide women across the country access to birth control with no co-pays. This final rule, announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), provides contraceptives without co-pays and refused to expand the religious employer exemption.
National Women's Law Center's Judy Waxman summarizes what has taken place in recent months: Over the summer in its temporary rules, HHS deemed birth control a necessary preventive health service for women, thus requiring coverage without co-pays by the Affordable Care Act. It also would allow a narrow set of religious employers to deny this critical coverage to their employees. But that didn't satisfy opponents of contraception. They wanted the coverage to be dropped, or at least to expand the exception to nearly 1.5 million employees and the women in their families. HHS stood firm, taking a giant step forward in protecting women's health.
Women's Groups Express Concerns with HHS Proposals for Essential Health Benefits
Progressive women's organizations (including NCWO) responded by letter to HHS' Essential Health Benefits Bulletin (part of implementing the Affordable Care Act, ACA) released in Dec. They said that, "while we are pleased to see some progress in developing what constitutes the essential health benefits (EHB) package, we are concerned that the Bulletin lacks strong federal standards and leaves too much flexibility to states."
It also expresses concern over "the tremendous variability in a women's access to high quality services at an affordable price depending on the state in which she lives."
It goes on to express concern "about the implications ...for women's health, including women's reproductive health. To ensure that the purposes and mandates of (the ACA) are met, future regulations implementing the benefits should ensure that the essential health benefits package complies with the ACA's nondiscrimination requirements; clarify definitions of maternity care, medical necessity, and preventive services; prohibit limits in the essential health benefits package; prohibit flexibility allowing plans to reduce any benefits within or across categories; and provide processes for updating, monitoring, and enforcing the essential health benefits package."