Health Care Reform

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act, historic health care reform legislation that stands to make significant improvements in the lives of women and their families.

It extends health care coverage to tens of millions of women and families.
It guarantees access to affordable, lifesaving screenings for breast and cervical cancer.
It protects women against gender discrimination by private insurers.
It ends the practice of dropping coverage because of pre-existing conditions, like pregnancy.
It significantly increases insurance coverage of reproductive health care, including family planning.

While we celebrate the passage of health care reform, we are going to need your help to fix the damage caused by the Nelson amendment. If left intact, the Nelson amendment would be the most severe restriction on private health insurance coverage of abortion in 35 years. What does the Nelson amendment require?

If a health plan chooses to provide coverage for abortion, it must collect two payments from all enrollees — one payment for abortion coverage and one payment for all other coverage.
Health plans are required to deposit those payments into separate accounts made up of private funds and ensure that abortion care is only paid for using private accounts designated for abortion payments.

FPA in coalition with women’s health and rights organizations here in New York and nationally are working hard to ensure that women of New York will have access to the full range of reproductive health care services, including coverage of abortion care, in the state-based health insurance exchange. Click here to stay informed of our efforts.

Want to learn more about health care reform? Check out this great video Health Reform Hits Main Street from Kaiser Family Foundation.