I checked... and I'm covered with no copays!

RWV’s New York intern, Nina Nnamani, shares what she learned about how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has improved her health insurance coverage.

As a woman in her early 20s, I am among those who benefit most from the health care law. I am in my first year of graduate school and have a lot of things on my “worry list” – assignments that must be turned in, rent that is due, loans that must be paid back and more. However, thanks to the new health care law, affording co-pays for key preventive care isn’t one of my worries.

Under the law, all new insurance plans must cover key preventive care for women without copays. This means that care like birth control or screenings for sexually transmitted infections are provided at no extra cost.

I knew this provision applied to plans starting after August 2012, and that many women would see the changes go into effect in January 2013 (when many new plan years start). But, I didn’t know whether my plan was complying and whether I’d begin seeing coverage without co-pays too.

Well, I checked, and it does! This is the first year that I will be able to get this key preventive care without paying for extra costs. This helps me stay healthy while on a student budget, and allows me to cross one more thing off of my “worry list.”

This provision of the health care law applies to all new plans starting on or after August 2012. Check to see if you are covered too! Ask these questions to find out whether your plan is complying.

Let us know what you find out by joining our #ACAwomen Tweetchat on Monday January 28^th, at 2 pm ET. We will be talking about the preventive care services now covered without co-pays, and would love to hear what you think. Tweet us @RWV4healthcare or use the hashtag #ACAwomen to join the conversation! 

Math is hard (for some in Congress)

Do you remember the Barbie doll that said “Math is hard!”?  Maybe someone needs to make a John Boehner doll that says the same thing, because the latest budget proposal from the House Speaker shows he’s having trouble coming up with math that adds up.

If you've been following our newsletter (sign up here), you may have read our earlier story on the battle over the federal budget, deficit reduction proposals and the so-called fiscal cliff, you know that some important women’s health programs are at risk – including parts of the Affordable Care Act health care law, as well as Medicare and Medicaid.  And if you’re reading news reports this week, you know that Boehner and his Republican colleagues in Congress have put forward a proposal that threatens Medicare in a very specific way – and it’s a way that makes no mathematical sense.

The proposal is to raise the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67, so you would have to wait two extra years before you would be able to get health care through Medicare.  This would save the federal government money because it would no longer have to pay for health care for people who are 65 and 66 years old.

But what supporters of the proposal don’t like to talk about is that those 65 and 66-year-old seniors will still have health care needs that will cost money and those health care dollars will still have to be paid by someone.  Turns out that someone is us!  This proposal isn’t actually about reducing health care spending; it’s just about shifting the costs for health care for those seniors from the federal government to seniors, employers and state health care programs.

What’s worse, the Kaiser Family Foundation did a study showing that raising the age of eligibility for Medicare would not only shift the costs – it would actually double them!  The federal government would save $5.7 billion, but everyone else would have to spend more than $11.4 billion to cover the health care costs of the seniors who got dropped from Medicare.

And worse still, this change would do disproportionate harm to seniors of color and people whose jobs require physical labor.  Seniors of color are more likely to have health problems at a younger age, so the delay in getting into Medicare could mean they suffer through extra years when their health care needs aren’t being met.  Native Americans and African Americans would be losing the most because they have shorter life expectancies, on average, meaning that the two year Medicare postponement cuts out a larger proportion of their time in the Medicare program even though they will have paid Medicare taxes through their whole working life, just like workers of other races.

People who do physical labor would also be hurt because they’re less likely to be able to keep working to maintain employer-based insurance for the extra years when the proposal would leave them without Medicare.  It’s one thing to continue working as a partner in a law firm or behind a CEO’s desk when you’re 65, and another thing to scrub floors or do construction work when you no longer have the physical stamina you did at 25.

Making people wait longer for Medicare will hurt seniors, cutting their benefits and leaving more of them without the health care they need.  It will also increase health care costs for businesses and states and push the price of health insurance premiums up for all of us.  That doesn’t sound like a conservative solution – in fact, it doesn’t sound like a solution at all.
Tell your member of Congress not to shift Medicare costs on to us!

We are healthy, we are powerful

This week Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need (RWV) celebrates the Latina Week of Action by raising our voices to say ¡Somos Poderosas! (We are powerful!). 

RWV works to ensure that women’s voices are heard and concerns are addressed as health care reform is put into action.  As women, our voices are important and powerful because we are the experts on what health services we need to ensure the health of ourselves and our families.  The health care law is already helping women by eliminating long standing discriminatory practices by the insurance industry and making care more affordable so women and our families can stay healthy and be powerful.

Ivy Ngo and Keely Monroe outside of the US Supreme Court Women of color, in particular, stand to gain a lot from the law.  Communities of color have long suffered from lack of access to basic health services and this has resulted in dangerous and deadly health disparities.  African American women are nearly four times more likely to die during childbirth than White women, reflecting differences in access to prenatal and maternity care.  Vietnamese American women are five times more likely and Latinas twice as likely to develop cervical cancer as their white counterparts due to barriers to cancer screenings.  Latinos are also the most likely to be uninsured of any other racial or ethnic group and experience disproportionately high rates of unintended pregnancy, diabetes, asthma and sexually transmitted infections including HIV.  It’s time to bring an end to these shameful disparities and the health care law is helping us to do this.

The health care law includes some important provisions that help women of color get the health care services they need and RWV is sharing that important and empowering news, using our Countdown to Coverage campaign!  This campaign tells the real incredible story of how the new health care law is already helping millions of women, including women of color, by helping us to access important preventive care we need like mammograms and contraception without costly co-pays; by protecting us from discriminatory health insurer practices that have allowed them to deny care to those with pre-existing conditions; and by providing security in knowing that insurers can’t cancel our coverage when we get sick. 

Please take a moment today to learn about how the health care law is helping women of color get the health care they need and help us spread the word about these advances for women of color by sharing the links to our website and coverage checklists with a woman in your life.  Remember, we are powerful and when women and our families get the health services we need, we are healthy AND powerful. 

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The Perfect Mother's Day Gift

This weekend is Mother’s Day. My inbox is full of e-mails from various fruit, flower, and chocolate companies reminding me to send a gift to my mother. Unfortunately, my mom doesn’t like those traditional gifts. I once bought her a box of pears – to which she pointed out I could get twice as many pears for half the price at Costco. When I bought her a bouquet of white tulips, I received an angry voicemail reminding me that in Chinese culture, white flowers were synonymous with death. And chocolate – well that just brought on the rant of overpriced gifts with useless wrapping that is a ploy to make me waste my money on nothing.

“If you want to give me a present,” she always said. “Go to school, get good grades, and get a good job.”

The wish for a good job was just as much about financial independence as it was about the time-sensitive concern of insurance. Our health insurance company would only include me in the family plan if I was under 21 years old, or if I was under 23 and still in school.  In either scenario, upon graduation, I would need to have a job with health benefits by July or, much to my mother’s fear, become uninsured.

My mother didn’t have to worry because I was fortunate to get a job with great health benefits. But not all of my friends were as lucky. Many of them graduated and couldn’t find a full-time job or a job that offered health care coverage. They became uninsured and unable to afford the care they needed to stay healthy.

Luckily, my friends have the perfect gift for their moms this Sunday: the ability to stay insured.

Because of health care reform, children up to age 26 can stay on their parents’ health care plan as long as their own employer does not offer health benefits. What a relief for mothers across the country! No more worrying about that two month crunch to find a job, or the need to have their child stay in school simply to receive health insurance. Children don’t even need to be living at home to stay on their parents’ plan. They can maintain access to the medical care they need, during one of the most uncertain times of their life.

So for all you young adults out there with mothers like mine – who hate traditional gifts and only want promises that your future is taken care of – you now have the perfect gift.  You won’t need to wrap it or even worry that it won’t come in time, because it is already here. Over 150,000 young adults in New York have gained coverage because of this provision, and you can be one of them too.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

For more information about how moms benefit from health care reform, visit I love MamaCare or the Coverage Checklist: Moms and Our Families. Also check out our Twitter and Tumblr for pictures of moms & kids who love the benefits they get from health care reform!

Raising Our Voices for Health Equity

Last month we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and all the gains we have made thanks to health care reform.  This month, which is National Minority Health Month, we remember how far we still have to go in achieving health equity.  With the glaring racial disparities we still face in the United States and the health challenges for so many women of color that these disparities reveal, health equity cannot wait. We must act now! 

Malika Redmond, National Women's Health Network board member, and Keely Monroe celebrating the Countdown to Coverage campaign.

Health Equity is a founding principle in Raising Women’s Voices for the Health We Need (RWV) woman’s vision for quality affordable health care and we believe that the health care systems must actively address and work to eliminate racial, ethnic, gender and class disparities in health care.  Communities of color have long suffered from lack of access to basic health services and this has resulted in dangerous and deadly health disparities.  African American women are nearly four times more likely to die during childbirth than White women, reflecting differences in access to prenatal and maternity care.  Vietnamese American women are five times more likely and Latinas twice as likely to develop cervical cancer as their white counterparts due to barriers to cancer screenings.  And African American women have the highest breast cancer mortality rate of any race.  We need a national commitment to health equity – it’s time to bring an end to these shameful disparities.

There is some good news on this front. The ACA includes important provisions that are helping us get on the right track toward health equity and RWV is sharing that good news, using our Countdown to Coverage campaign.  This campaign tells the incredible true story of how the new health care law is already helping millions of women, including women of color, get the services they need to stay healthy!  You can learn about the health services and protections of the ACA from the coverage checklists we’ve posted on the campaign website.

Please take a moment today to learn about how the ACA is helping women of color get the health care they need and putting this country on the road to health equity.  During National Minority Health Month, help us spread the word about these advances for women of color by sharing the links to our website and coverage checklists with a woman in your life.  Remember, health equity can’t wait, and women of color stand to make important gains from the advances of the ACA.  

Health Equity Can’t Wait: Why? Because Health Care is a Basic Human Right!

Posted by Sara Finger, Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health

This post is part of the Health Equity Can’t Wait, Act now in your CommUNITY blog carnival launched by the Health Equity and Accountability Act Working Group; you can see all posts on the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) website by linking, here.

Yesterday, we blogged on our health equity agenda and what we were doing in Wisconsin to raise awareness and support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as means for doing so. But some might wonder why advocates for health care reform believe it is so crucial for the wellbeing of communities all across the country, Wisconsin included. To that we say: health care is a basic human right, and the status quo is not working for women and families.

But, we can tell you what IS working: health care reform provisions that have already taken place so far. Earlier this month, we sharedsome promising statistics about health care access for racial and ethnic minority young adults. The statistics show, thanks to a provision in the ACA that allows young adults to stay on their parents insurance until their 26^th birthday, 1.3 million minority young adults now have health insurance, including:

• 763,000 Latinos
• 410,000 African Americans
• 97,000 Asian Americans
• 29,000 American Indian/Alaskans

Insurance rates among minorities will increase with the implementation of health care exchanges in 2014, as well, which is why we support its implementation, because access to quality health care services is a basic human right. It is a basic human right to have access to the same quality, lifesaving, and affordable health care services as your peers.

However, this is not the case for many women. Low income women are at risk of lacking access to preventive cancer screenings.  Women of color are more likely to be uninsured than their white peers and less likely to have access to cancer and other preventive screenings. As a result, 9 more black women die from breast cancer than white women, per 100,000, annually, a startling, unnecessary and unjust statistic.

Additionally, there is about a 33 year difference in life expectancy between the longest and shortest living racial and ethnic groups – which is why access to health care is, and should be considered, a basic human right. That’s 33 years less time with your children, friends and family. A 33 year difference in life expectancy is just one reason why health equity can’t wait.

Health Equity Can’t Wait: Supporting a Health Equity Agenda in Wisconsin

Posted by Sara Finger, Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health

This post is part of the Health Equity Can’t Wait, Act now in your CommUNITY blog carnival launched by the Health Equity and Accountability Act Working Group; you can see all posts on the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) website by linking, here.

Recognizing the disparities in health care services and access in Wisconsin women, which are even greater for women of color, the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health (WAWH) has been engaging the community in health care equity for women through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The WAWH has done so through their Raising Wisconsin Women’s Voices health care reform blog, which highlights important provisions of health care reform that Wisconsin women need. The blog is mean to be a resource for our followers to go to learn about provisions and what it means for them and their family.

Along with our blog we have been vocal to our policymakers and to the media about the importance of meaningful health care reform implementation in our state. Unfortunately, in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker has halted any implementation of the ACA and at the same time is making health care access through the state’s Medicaid programs, like BadgerCare, less attainable for Wisconsinites.

While our agenda for attaining health equity through the ACA was once to assist our policymakers in making this legislation the most meaningful it can be in Wisconsin, the Governor’s halt on any forth moving legislation to do so has shifted our attention to using a different method: Raising Wisconsin Women’s Voices!

Women, when they are appropriately and truthfully educated on the implications of this landmark health law are more likely to support it. WAWH has used this finding to make women aware about how their lives will be impacted – for the better – with the ACA. We have done so by hosting webinars to give women a “101” explanation of the ACA as well as the Health Care Exchanges. Last month, we launched and completed a statewide tour to “Educate and Celebrate: How Wisconsin Women Win with Health Care Reform.”

Also last month, WAWH Executive Director was recognized for her efforts by the White House as a White House Champion of Change. The award was meant to highlight individuals who have championed health care access throughout their career and that have done work to educate their community on the benefits of the ACA.

Women are most likely to be the health care coordinators in their family, and are also the least likely to have health care access through an employer. This disparity increases for women of a different ethnic or racial background than white women. Women are prone to health care practices such as “gender rating” where they are charged more than men for the same plan. Further, in 2009, 87% of health plans did not offer maternity care. This is especially important for health equity in Wisconsin, as black babies are three times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies – oftentimes as a result of low birth weight, preterm birth, or both – which are adverse birth outcomes that increase without adequate maternity care.

Healthy women contribute to health families and communities, and health care access is important for all women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Health care access is an important factor in attaining health care equity, and WAWH will continue to mobilize individuals and organizations in supporting the ACA to achieve this goal.

Be sure to check in tomorrow for day two’s post for the Health Equity Can’t Wait blog carnival.