Last week, New York State Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said this:
“(The Affordable Care Act) said to women of America, ‘You can’t be charged more just because you’re a woman.’ It said, ‘You can’t be dropped coverage when you become pregnant.’ Imagine becoming pregnant and having your insurer drop coverage because you are no longer economic or you cost too much money. Imagine being a cancer survivor and then having your coverage dropped because you survived cancer, and you cost too much money.
We made sure contraception, preventive care service, health care screenings, mammograms were affordable and accessible, and if we take that away, these families are left without the basic care they need to survive. So if you love women, and you love your mothers and daughters and wives—please do not unwind the Affordable Care Act. We need women’s health protected, and that’s what this amendment does.”
Republicans have no firm plan for replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Many women are concerned an ACA repeal will have a negative impact on their reproductive health. For women, one of the biggest benefits of the Affordable Care Act has been access to no-cost birth control.
Republicans don’t need to repeal Obamacare in full to deny women access to no-cost contraception. Rather, they need only to remove birth control from the list of preventative services providers are required to cover without co-pay.
HealthCetera’s Barbara Glickstein interviewed certified nurse midwife Christa Palancia Esposito C.N.M., M.S. on the impact on girls and women if the birth control mandate is repealed. Ms. Palancia Esposito is a Visiting Instructor at Fairfield University Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies. She is a practicing nurse midwife at Women’s Health Care of Connecticut in Trumbull, CT.
Tune in Thursday, January 19 at 1 PM to 99.5 FM streamed live at www.wbai.org or you can listen to the interview here:
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