Preventative Care

I happen to be a fan of Obamacare. Maybe I do not agree with all aspects of it but who has really read the 900 page Act from front to back and agreed with everything in it. This is just one step in the right direction. One more awesome perk to the Affordable Care Act went into effect earlier this week, and it mostly affects women and preventative care. From the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Texas they announced that as of Aug. 1 all new insurance policies will be required to cover essential women’s health services at no out-of-pocket cost to patients. This is not only for Texas but the Nation as a whole. According to Joyce Frieden of KevinMD.com in How Healthcare Reform Affects Women , "An estimated 30 million women will be helped by the new health reform law over the next 10 years, according to a report from The Commonwealth Fund." The covered services include: Well-woman checkups, contraceptive coverage and counseling, domestic violence screening and counseling, breastfeeding support and supplies, and gestational diabetes screening. These services will not only save women money, but insurance companies as well. Because of free preventative screening that women will no longer be put off due to financial reasons. The coverage of screenings for breast and cervical cancer as well as smoking and alcohol cessation will prevent a host of problems that cost insurance companies much more money if not treated. If cancer is detected early, it can often be treated and eradicated, saving insurance companies from paying bills for costly medications and treatments for years at a time – not to mention the lives being saved. Smoking and alcohol cessation also have countless reasons for saving both the woman and insurer money including liver disease, heart disease, cancer, COPD and even Fetal Alchohol Syndrome for unborn children. These are just a few of the problems that could arise without proper preventative care and treatment. The much-debated Affordable Care Act was in jeopardy of being nullified earlier this summer when the Supreme Court took up a challenge to the law. Since most of the law still stands – thanks to a 5-4 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts (which was incredibly controversial) – people around the country will continue to benefit from its immediate changes and others that will be implemented between now and 2014. Effective immediately children under 26 can continue to stay on a parent's insurance plan withouth lifetime payout limits. They have also made it law that anyone with a pre-existing condition cannot be denied insurance coverage. The above statement is incredibly important. In 2010, my uncle Pat (a male) could do none other than bash talk "Obamacare". "It will just cost us more money in the long run," he would say. This was before he was diagnosed with Stage One Lymphoma in early 2011. He has worked for the school district for over 25 years and had great benefits and health insurance to help him through this milestone in all of our lives, but not everyone has that kind of safety net. He is in full remission as of last month, but with the new Act laws he can NEVER be turned down for insurance because of his cancer. This is a monumental accomplishment. He is not Pro-Obama or even Pro-Obamacare, but he now knows there are some things in the Affordable Care Act that we must have, and that will only benefit the people in this country. Needless to say he has changed his "tune". As for me, someone who has had to have two lumpectomies before I turned 25 for precancerous tumors in my breast I am more than tickled at the new laws starting to take place. Hopefully they will help keep me healthy and cancer free instead of in a clinic with Stage 4 Breast Cancer with nowhere to turn. Some new laws have gone into effect but it only to "new" plans, pre-existing plans do not have to honor this law yet. But, according to a survey done by the National Women's Law Center that 90 percent of all large U.S. companies expect that their health plans will lose grandfathered status by 2014, and “eventually all plans will lose their grandfathered status ... At that point, all plans will cover these important preventive health services without cost sharing,” the center’s website states. It has been said over the years by doctors and the like that preventing diseases and sickness is easier and more affordable than treating them. We, as well as our insurance companies should take advantage of these new perks. It is going to save so much more money in the long run. As the aspects of the Affordable Care Act slowly go into place we should slowly, BUT surely see the difference for everyone affected.