Wisconsin Women Win with ObamaCare

The Affordable Care Act, also known as the health reform law and in some circles, ObamaCare, makes important advances for women’s health and will provide Wisconsin women and their families with access to high-quality and affordable health care—not in some “socialized plan” but right in the current Wisconsin insurance markets. The health care law reforms those markets to make sure they work for women, families, and small businesses. It’s true that businesses have been crushed by rising health care costs, that’s why the new law gives small businesses tax credits to help, and makes insurance companies spend most of your premiums on health care costs, not administration costs or profits.

Wisconsin women are already benefiting from this law. Insurance companies are not allowed to drop women’s coverage if they become sick, or impose a lifetime limit.  There are many new preventive services that are available with no out-of-pocket costs.  And, fortunately, this is just the beginning. By 2014, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny women coverage due to pre-existing conditions, such as having had a C-section or breast cancer. Insurers will not be allowed to charge more money for the same insurance coverage as men.

So when legislators in Wisconsin talk about ObamaCare, which one of these do they want to take away? Should women in Wisconsin face discrimination? Should small businesses continue to suffer from rising health costs? Should insurance companies put more money in their pockets instead of health care? Should women in Wisconsin be considered a pre-existing condition?

Sara Eskrich, Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health