Why We ♥ The ACA: Reason #3

March 03, 2017

Reason #3: The ACA requires insurance plans to cover basic preventive services for women.

Many of our patients have benefited from the ACA’s requirement that all health plans cover preventive services for women without charging a co-payment. Across the Institute’s network, says Dr. Ruth Lesnewski, a primary care provider and women’s health expert at our Sidney Hillman/Phillips Family Practice, “Women have been able to get long-overdue tests done, including cancer screenings, and get care for high blood pressure, addiction, etc. A major benefit has been copay-free contraception – a large number of women have benefited, in our practice and all over the country. It was especially beneficial to patients seeking long acting birth control, like implants or IUDs, because those have a really high upfront cost if you don’t have insurance.”

The potential for a repeal of the ACA means that women’s access to health care – especially in already-underserved communities – will be at risk. Dr. Lesnewski has noticed that fear of repeal has affected the choices women are making. “Lately, there’s been a huge buzz among young women in our health center – they are worried about losing their birth control,” she says. “They are afraid because they see that reproductive justice is specifically under attack. As a result, we are seeing women frantically trying to get an IUD so they’ll have birth control that gets them through the next few years – just to be protected no matter what happens.”

Dr. Ruth Lesnewski is faculty for our Mount Sinai Downtown Residency in Urban Family Medicine and sees patients at our Sidney Hillman/Phillips Family Practice. Check our blog each week through March for more reasons why We ❤ the ACA.

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