In the year 2011, 81% of the total women were enrolled under health insurance marketplace plans for pre-natal, child birth and post-natal care. This was one great move as prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Earlier women were subjected to a lot of healthcare coverage restrictions as they were not qualified to get coverage with pre-existing conditions. Many conditions like rape, c-section, domestic violence, pregnancy were not covered under the health insurance canopy.
But, you would be happy to know that this Open Enrollment 2017 is providing 47 million women the power to use health insurance for all their health and medical needs. Earlier, the only medium of offering health coverage was using deductibles and co-pays out of the pocket of the enrollees. Whatever developments that have taken place under Obamacare is just a portion of the total benefits provided. There are more benefits that will be covered by the ACA for women. Earlier only 12% health insurances sold to Americans had maternity coverage policies. The amount women paid on healthcare was $1 billion more than what men paid in a year for the same set of plans.
With Obamacare, the following benefits were specially allotted to women:
- Women having health insurance from private exchanges are entitled to mammograms without co-pay.
- Many pregnant women who had their health insurance limits for lifetime were taken out of those limits.
- Through Medicare, in the year 2015 alone saw 6 million women receive free mammograms.
- Neither will the survivors from breast cancers be denied coverage nor will they get high premium deductions as they have pre-existing conditions.
Also, women will find many benefits from the ACA, as they can access a lot of preventive services taken care of completely by the insurance companies. Services like colonoscopy, mammograms, HIV testing and counseling, counseling for sexually transmitted diseases, HPV DNA test, counseling for breastfeeding. Also, they can avail free education on contraceptives and FDA approved methods of contraceptives, screening for domestic violence and its screening, gestation related diseases, fitness visits for women.
So, this Open Enrollment, which has begun from November 1, 2016, and will run until January 1, 2017, try to get all your family members enrolled. Make sure you are not shying away from getting healthcare coverage for women. You will actually save more money out of your healthcare costs as 62% of the women are now covered under health insurance policies for a lot of health conditions faced only by them.
