DeLauro Highlights Positive Impact Of Health Care Reform For CT Women

Press Release

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) today outlined how Connecticut women are benefitting from the landmark health care reform law. DeLauro was joined by Connecticut residents who shared their own stories of how the law is helping them and their families.

"Voting for the Affordable Care Act is one of the proudest votes I have taken, in no small part because it finally put women's health on an equal footing with men's. Before we acted, individual women routinely paid more than men, but still did not have important services, like maternity care, covered. Starting next year, insurance companies cannot do that anymore. And having a child, or even being a victim of domestic violence, is no longer grounds for denying a woman health insurance coverage. These reforms, along with many others, are long overdue."

DeLauro was joined by Demian Fontenella, CT Office of the Healthcare Advocate; Bev Levy, who is undergoing ovarian cancer treatments; and Mary Ann Wasil, a survivor of breast cancer.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) guarantees coverage for maternity care, and no out of pocket costs for essential preventative health services, providing critical health services to women and families throughout the country. Over a million Connecticut women have already accessed free coverage for critical services like free annual checkups, colonoscopies, contraception, mammograms and flu shots.

The ACA eliminates discriminatory practices that have previously marginalized women, such as gender rating, the practice of charging women more for insurance simply because they are a woman, and barring denials based on pre-existing conditions, which to some insurers even extended to pregnancy or domestic violence. And thanks to a provision DeLauro championed, everyone shopping for health insurance gets a clearly worded "summary of benefits" that explains basic information about the policies they are considering.

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