Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with several media outlets in an effort to tell the stories of women who would be helped by comprehensive reproductive healthcare, particularly affordable access to contraception through insurance. While this experience has been emotionally and physically exhausting, I have been repeatedly moved by the hundreds of women and men who have contacted me to show support. Lest we forget where this conversation started, I would like to take this opportunity to take a step back to exactly two years ago and acknowledge the tremendous difference that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is making and will continue to make in women's lives everywhere.
This law, also known as health reform, will benefit over 45 million women in our country through increased access to preventive care services without copays and deductibles. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act's new requirements that private insurance and Medicare cover these services without cost-sharing, by the time the law is fully implemented in 2014, women will benefit from, among other services: mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, pre and post natal care, flu shots, regular well-baby, well-child and well-woman visits, domestic violence screening, and the full range of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives.
If this seems too good to be true, think again. This is the product of women in action - this is what happens when women stand up for what they and their families need to be healthy and are finally heard by people at the highest ranks of our government. This is what it looks like when government works for us and prioritizes our health.
And just as we will not be silenced when we are verbally attacked for speaking out, we will not go back to a society without this care. My colleagues and friends at my university who struggle with polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, unintended pregnancy, and even the terrible consequences of sexual assault understand what it's like for someone else to make their health care decisions for them. New moms who need to space their children, young women who are starting their careers, and low income women who struggle to afford basic necessities understand the need to control their reproduction. I have tried to represent them by talking about their experiences - but any influence I might have is only due to their courage in coming forward.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, that courage is reaping as yet untold benefits. I look forward to the day when students at my university finally have the comprehensive reproductive health coverage they need to stay healthy. I look forward to never again hearing about a friend who lost her ovary to a tennis ball-sized cyst because she couldn't afford to keep paying for contraception out of pocket. I look forward to the unintended pregnancy rate in our country, which is stuck at half of all pregnancies, finally declining. I look forward to more women surviving breast and cervical cancer because they were diagnosed early. I look forward to the end of gender rating in insurance, which can inflate premiums for young women by 150% compared to their male counterparts, and which costs women of all ages an extra $1 billion per year. And I look forward to knowing that when my friends choose to start their families, they will not be faced with the 87% of individual insurance plans that do not currently cover maternity care, and they will not be labeled as having a "preexisting condition" if it turns out they need a C-section.
I know that when women have the opportunity, they will take care of their health, which in the end benefits both our families and our country. On this second anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I express my gratitude and celebrate the new opportunity for healthy lives, before, during and after our reproductive years.
Sandra Fluke is a third-year law student at Georgetown University Law Center and has served as President of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice.
Follow Sandra Fluke on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SandraFluke
David M. Walker: SCOTUS and Health Care Reform: We Are Arguing Over the Wrong Things
There is ONLY one type of insurance that it will be ILLEGAL by law to rate based on gender.
One.
Never let it be said that feminists don't have the best lobbyists.
They could NOT CARE LESS about the "gender rating" that occurs in every other type of insurance.
Utter hypocrisy.
Women pay 150% compared to men because they GET 150% more health care than men.
Shouldn't those who get more pay more?
In return, we women pay taxes to support a criminal justice system that is utilized primarily by male criminals and wars that are instigated and fought primarily by male war makers ... I'd say it more than evens out. Face it, with all the killing men do, we'd be in pretty bad shape if we made it even more expensive for women to replenish the pool of human beings.
"Shouldn't those who get more pay more?”
Men are getting children without having to bear or birth them. Sounds like you're getting plenty of bang for your buck.
Moving onto your comment: "Men are getting children without having to bear or birth them." This may be true but REAL men are an active, supportive part of the child birth process. We participate with the Lamaze training we nurture and take care of our wives during their pregnancy and even share in many of the labors associated with the pregnancy and delivery process. Any woman that has given birth will quickly admit that the delivery process is well worth the physical pain - which is typically forgotten moments after holding the new life in her arms.
To have such an anti-male position on this whole process seems to indicate that your personal experience was lacking the kind of support that the father of a child should (and in most cases does) provide. You paint the picture that the experiences of men and women during the process are mutually exclusive - which is entirely false.
With all due respect, a misandrist should be no more of an advocate for these matters as a misogynist.
Women are also more likely to have HEALTH INSURANCE which means that they are the responsible ADULT.
In my state, white males, aged 21-44 are the highest numbers of the uninsured.
What, men don't contribute to pregnancy costs? Are you kidding?
As it concerns anatomy, other than reproducing, there is nothing on a woman that a man doesn't have that cannot need health care!
I'd have to debate your claim that women should pay more because of what makes them "different" (reproduction) and that it is okay to punish them financially as it ignores that there was a MAN somewhere in that BABY MAKING transaction that should be considered as much responsible for that 1/2 of that health care "cost". DUH.
While we are throwing out gender bias, men typically postpone seeking needed health care until their disease is more advanced and more costly... so, if you do some gender behavior "balancing" on the whole, your claim that women cost more is idiot+ic.
You will do anything to silence the people that 'attack' you verbally.
Who is the "you" referred to in that post?
If you'd stop making the costs involved in your sex life a public issue, chances are, nobody would care.
Liberty Works Best.....not perfect, not utopia-----those aren't options, just best. Sorry to disappoint ya.
The inclusion of contraceptives in the preventive medicine portion of the AHCAO is vital to help keep costs down.
One reason is: "Covering contraception saves money for insurance companies by keeping women healthy and preventing spending on other health services. For example, there was no increase in premiums when contraception was added to the Federal Employees Health Benefit System and required of non-religious employers in Hawaii. One study found that covering contraception lowered premiums by 10 percent or more."
And: Birth control is not only taken to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but also utilized to improve women's overall health. Birth control is prescribed to treat ovarian cysts, to reduce the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancers and to treat a myriad of other health concerns. Women should not have to explain to their employers their need for coverage of birth control in order to acquire the medicine prescribed by their doctors.
And: For those who say generic brands-Target-Walmart offer $9 per month pills, need education. Many women can't tolerate generic brands, or even some name brands. Sometimes trying several may be necessary, and many cost a lot more. Some women can't tolerate the side effectsof pills, and have to go to IUD, or other measures that cost even more.
Lastly, it is a cost effective measure that in the long run will benefit women and the financial health of their families.
Insurance is a product that one buys to offset the cost and risk of large, unexpected costs due to catastrophe. Making birth control, ED, sterilization, preventive care "free" is not an insurance product.
The days of health insurance are gone. Today we are all forced to share in the health care costs of the nation. Whether the procedure is warranted or not.