Federal Issues - Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform

Planned Parenthood believes that all Americans should be guaranteed access to quality, affordable health care.

An integral part of America's health care safety net, Planned Parenthood has called for a renewed focus on preventive health. Many women, including many Planned Parenthood clients, rely on their reproductive health care provider as their primary source of health care. Through this relationship, women have access to a broad range of reproductive health care services that promote and protect their general health and well-being.

Statewide, Pennsylvania’s 44 Planned Parenthood health centers receive federal, state, and private funding to provide affordable, quality care to millions of patients a year. But recently, Planned Parenthood has been under attack from anti-choice radicals who want to prevent us from serving women, men, teenagers, and families.

New Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Report spotlights the impact that the nation’s health care crisis is having on women.

According to the report:

• Women are more vulnerable to high health care costs because women’s reproductive health requires more regular contact with health care providers, including yearly Pap tests, mammograms, and obstetric care. These tough economic times are especially difficult for women struggling to pay for basic health care.
• The Women's Research and Education Institute reports that women of childbearing age spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, in part because of reproductive health-related supplies and services.
• A Kaiser Family Foundation report shows that roughly 16.7 million women are uninsured, and thus likely to postpone care and delay or forgo important preventive care such as cancer screenings.
• Family planning centers, like Planned Parenthood, serve as an entry point for millions of women. Guttmacher reports that six in 10 clients consider family planning centers their main source of health care. Oftentimes, it is their first interaction with the country’s health care system.

Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

In 2010 the U.S. Congress passed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Some highlights of the Act include:

• Prohibiting health insurers from refusing coverage based on a patients’ pre-existing condition.
• Prohibiting health insurers from refusing to charge patients different rates based on gender.
• A government subsidy to low- and middle-income Americans to help buy insurance
• A government-run insurance plan – “exchange” –  for Americans and small businesses/companies to participate in

Although this new health insurance law will help millions of Americans have increased access to quality, affordable health care, women’s health care is still under attack. The Pennsylvania state legislature may soon vote on a bill that would eliminate abortion coverage within the government-run insurance exchange. Therefore leaving some of the most financially vulnerable women at risk and eliminating a woman’s ability to make crucial choices about her health.

What You Can Do

Write a letter to editor or to your legislator on women’s health as a part of health care reform implementation. Email here to join us: administration@pppamail.org. We’ll give you all the tools necessary!