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Navigating the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Part IX - Women’s Health Issues

Department of Financial Services, Consumer eViews Volume 7 Number 32

August 6, 2010

Sean M. Shaw, Insurance Consumer AdvocateSean Shaw, Insurance Consumer Advocate

Office of the Insurance Consumer AdvocateAs the summer comes to an end, the Navigating the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) series has also come to a conclusion. Navigating the PPACA can be a daunting task without guidance, and throughout the summer the Office of the Insurance Consumer Advocate has provided consumers with information regarding, benefits that will be enacted September 23, 2010, the PPACA timeline, preventative health benefits, advantages for small businesses, how the PPACA affects children and parents, and more. In this final edition, the Office will focus on how PPACA will impact women and women’s healthcare.

Numerous enactments have taken place as a result of the PPACA, and many of them specifically affect women and women’s health. Pregnant women, in particular, will see various changes as well, and they are as follows:

  • Annual mammograms for women over 40 in an effort to help prevent breast cancer. Other services to prevent breast cancer will also be covered, including a referral to genetic counseling and a discussion of chemoprevention for certain women at increased risk.
  • Regular pap smears to screen for cervical cancer and coverage for the HPV vaccine will be made available to assist in the effort to prevent cervical cancer.
  • Tobacco cessation interventions, such as counseling or medication to help individuals to stop smoking.
  • Preventing colon cancer: screening tests for colon cancer for women over 50.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2006, 12,000 women in the U.S. were diagnosed with cervical cancer, and approximately 4,000 women died from the disease. More than 16% of women in the U.S. are smokers, which significantly increases their risk of lung cancer and other tobacco-related illness.

The PPACA regulations ensure that new health plans offer coverage to women without cost-sharing for a variety of important cancer prevention tools including:

  • Insurance companies won’t be able to drop consumers’ coverage if they get pregnant.
  • Insurance companies will no longer be able to include lifetime limits on coverage.
  • Beginning in 2014, Job-based health plans and new individual plans won’t be allowed to deny or exclude anyone or charge more for a pre-existing condition including pregnancy or a disability.

For more information the PPACA and women’s healthcare services, consumers should visit http://www.healthcare.gov/.

As more information is available and additional changes become effective, the Office of the Insurance Consumer Advocate will generate advisories regarding healthcare services for women. More information regarding the PPACA can be found on the website of the Insurance Consumer Advocate at, http://www.myfloridacfo.com/ica/federalhealthcare.asp.