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Obamacare Implementation: Cancer Screenings & Contraception
Aug 2, 2012

Obamacare Implementation: Cancer Screenings & Contraception

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This morning I was on a conference call as a member of a women’s business association that educates women on economic issues of the day.  Today’s subject:  The expansion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA a.k.a. “Obamacare”) to provide more preventative care to women.

As of September 23, 2010, preventive services offered to women included the following:

  1. Mammography
  2. Cervical Cancer Screening
  3. STI Screening
  4. Hepatitis B Screening
  5. Other screens and counseling for pregnant women

As of August 1, 2012, preventative services were expanded under Obamacare.  The law now requires new, non-grandfathered private health plans to offer eight additional screenings and tests for adolescent and adult women at no extra charge:

  1. Well-woman visits
  2. Gestational diabetes screening
  3. HPV DNA testing
  4. STI counseling and HIV screening and counseling
  5. Contraception and contraceptive counseling
  6. Breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling
  7. Domestic violence screening
Some services are available only to certain populations based on age and/or level of risk. Healthcare.gov has information on covered preventative services.  The White House talking points on this subject here.  The President considers this a major victory for women – winning the health care war by expanding these services.
Speaker Boehner disagrees saying that these mandates are a direct attack on religious liberty.
What do you think?
Filed Under: Obamacare ·
  • Phyllis Yaich

    I am 100% pro-life and I think the HHS Mandate is evil. Why should I, through my health insurance, pay for contraceptives, sterilizations, and drug-inducing abortions? The people that take birth control bills, etc. should pay for it themselves. It is just common sense. Abortion is the most heinous evil in the world today. This is not a victory for women…it is the opposite; more women will take the pills, go to the hospital for sterilizations. A person is a person from conception to death. This is totally against the Law of God. Thank you and God bless. I pray many times a day that Obama will not be re-elected; he is destroying our country.

    • Phyllis Yaich

      Why does my comment require moderation. I told the truth about what I believe. I thought we had free speech in this country.

      • Judy B. Lloyd

        Hi Phyllis, you brought up a great point. You’re absolutely right – this was an oversight. We have revised the “comments” functionality.

    • Linda

      maybe I’m missing something….where does it saw that the mandate covers abortions??

  • http://dgriffin750@comcast.net Dorothy Griffin

    My problem is who is going to pay for all this. And why should people like me who can afford to pay for my own health services get it for free. Seems like a stretch to me. Fine–provide it for lower income women but why for everyone. It’s going to increase the cost for everyone else because nothing is free.

    • Katl LaFong

      Dorothy dear, America is not a restaurant. We all have a responsibilityto esch other as humans and as a community. If we are separately responsible only to ourselves then we will not have a nation and America will die.

      • http://dgriffin750@comcast.net Dorothy Griffin

        You didn’t read what I wrote. I don’t mind the government providing services for those that need it. But why does it have to be free for everyone. Most of us can afford our own health services–why should the government pay for every woman’s health services. If insurance is forced to pay for it then all of our premiums will rise. All is does is make all women dependent on government which is what i suspect this adminstration is seeking to do.

        • John Spek

          But why does it have to be free for everyone. Most of us can afford our own health services–why should the government pay for every woman’s health services. If insurance is forced to pay for it then all of our premiums will rise.

          Excactly – your insurance premiums are raised to pay for it

          And for those on the dole to be covered, your taxes are raised

          Free of Co-Pay and Deductible is not Free of cost – the cost just gets added in to the premium costs

      • Max48

        And you Kati, are killing it!

  • Alisa Middleton

    Obamacare is a bad bill. Maybe something needs to be done but this not it. Forcing people to buy it, forcing people to support abortion (trust me this is government funded abortion) and then there is the illusion that you get to keep your doctor, your insurance, your freedom. We have already started seeing the government telling us what to eat, when to breast feed. This is not good governing. They are slowly taking your freedom in the name of healthcare.

    • Katl LaFong

      The only “Freedom” you will lose is the freedom to die of a preventable disease. How can a woman hate this Law?

      • Alisa Middleton

        First of all you are asuming that woman are dieing now from a preventalbe disease. If this law goes into effect you will not only die from a preventable disease the healthcare you so desparately wanted will be encouraging it because you are too costly to continue care. They are already starting to gather information on hospital lenght of care and disease management. Then you are not considering the additional laws that will be infringed on personal freedom. You want that soda-nope, you want that hamburger-nope, you want ……-nope because now they are monitoring what you do with your behavior. We have already seen that this week with Chick-fil-A, that if the government doesn’t want that then you are boycotted or manipulated into the correct behavior.

      • Max48

        Because it just isn’t necessary. Why spend someone elses money when you don’t need to. It is redistribution of income in yet another incarnation.

  • Michele

    Please remember that the Affordable Care Act is based on Romneycare. The idea is that instead of those of us who have insurance paying for people who choose NOT to purchase it, or who can’t get it (previous illness, no job, etc), everyone has insurance and the cost is shared. I know a horse trainer who does not carry insurance. When she gets injured, she goes to the emergency room, and guess who pays? We who pay taxes do! The U.S. has a higher infant mortality rate than Cuba and we spend more! And to think that insurance companies would dictate what activities we could or could not do is nonsensical. Besides, my health insurance company told me that their fiduciary responsibility is to my employer not to me. And I do not choose which insurance company I want–I can only choose to not have insurance and lose the benefit. I am very much in favor of Romneycare.

    • Alisa Middleton

      I think you are very confused on what this Healthcare act is all about, it is about taxes and government power over you. Romneycare did not raise taxes and Obamacare there will be massive taxes. Romenycare expanded coverage for kids and Obamacare is expanding coverage for adults. You will under what the government will pay for and not pay for. The big difference between Romneycare tried incorporate the private sector insurances and Obamacare wants to eventually wipe out the private sector and have a universal healthcare, one size fits all. It is such a great insurance why has he issued over 1200 waivers. Over half of those are given to Unions and over 20% of the those waivers have been given to restaurants, niteclubs and hotels in Ms. Pelosi districe. No waiver were issued in Romneycare. Dr. M Wolf, a radiologist and Obama’s cousin, has written an article for the Washington Times, challenging the waiver process and which illustrates the selective enforcement of the law. Dr. Wolf points out that historically this is the first sign of tyranny.
      Big difference my friend.

    • Suzanne McKim Fletcher

      Yea – It would seem that this is all true. However, those who don’t pay for it now still won’t. But they will get care and it will all be prepaid for by us, the taxpayer, thru the wildly expanded Medicaid. We will be paying for everyone even though only a fraction of those people will ever need or use the services. As a retired Registered Nurse with years of hospital experience I can tell you that everyone who needed medical care and got themselves to my hospital, got care. This is all so silly. To mandate government care when only a fraction of people need it is just crazy. We are way bigger than the European countries that have socialized medicine. This is unmanageable. And, the theft and fraud already in our healthcare system is frightening ! This will make everything a million time worse.

  • http://www.rebeccaodonnell.com Rebecca O’Donnell

    Like Medicaid and Medicare, all the wonderful new provisions of this health care law will take a while to get used to. People are polarized by such a massive change. This is normal. Big change is often viewed as evil even when it’s good for the country. I am personally thrilled that we finally have this. The flaws can be ironed out over time but at least we now have a strong foundation upon which to build a safety net for all Americans and their health needs.

    • John Spek

      One minor problem

      Have you looked at the economic burden medicare and Medicaid are creating?
      Are you aware that inside of 10 years, those two programs, plus Social Security will take every possible tax dollar?

      And the only option will be socio-economic collapse?

      Perhaps you missed the news Friday, where not very many people wanted to lend the U S any more money – so the U S is buying it’s own IOU’s, promising to pay it’ self back, and printing more money

      If that sounds hokey – it’s like writing yourself a check, depositing it, and drawing funds out of the ATM based on that deposit

      Ho w long do you think that will work?

  • Jim

    “Big change is often viewed as evil even when it’s good for the country.”

    True enough for some things. But just because something is a big change and people react negatively to it does not mean the change is good. People do react to change. No doubt. People reacting to change has nothing to do with the quality or “goodness” of the change. People reacting to change is because they are people. Looking at people’s reaction instead of substance of Obamacare is a bait and switch argument.

    Obamacare is a problem. Costly, controlling, does not “fix” anything. Will drive doctors and healthcare providers out of private practice. Obamacare is not about healthcare. It is about an ever growing and ever more invasive government.

  • Jim

    This is a great article from a self acknowledged leftist media outlet that illustrates the left does not have clue about business.

    The article is about eliminating a loophole in the law that allows home health agencies to pay in home workers/companions less than minimum wage as well as not paying them over time. That group of health care workers wants, understandably mind you, that loophole closed. They want to make more money and they want to get paid over time.

    Here is one line from the article. See the link for the entire article.

    “Nearly 1.8 million workers in 29 states would likely see a pay boost under the proposal, according to government estimates.”

    This is the way the left thinks. “Government fix it, everyone get paid more.”

    NO sense of reality when it come to business. The reality is people will get laid off, workers will not be allowed to work over time, people needing care will be without their companions. Here’s why.

    Most of the folks who need the kind of assistance we are talking about here are on some kind of assistance. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc., because their physical condition speaks for itself. Whatever the reason is they need a care giver in their home it is not a reach to say they qualify for some kind of assistance. Not having done the research I can’t give you a number or a percent. But having worked in the field I can assure you “most” is the right term. Most of them are on assistance and that assistance is “government’ of some kind.

    The government pays the home health agency X amount of dollars for Y amount of care. The government, local, state, federal, has over the years reduced the amount of “X”. Daily hospice reimbursement has gone down and is probably going down again. So the agencies, that do need to make money in order to exist, can afford to pay its workers a certain amount and stay in business. If the government says those agencies have to now pay MORE while the government keeps paying LESS, the result is NOT “see a pay boost”. The result is some may see a pay boost but others will be let go as home health agencies reduce their overhead cost.

    And it is only going to get worse with Obamacare. The cost of mandated care has to come out of an ever shrinking piece of financial pie. Obamacare does not increase reimbursement to providers. It reduces it. In areas where there may be an increase, health care providers have so many hoops to jump through the cost of the extra dollars is higher than the extra payment warrants, for providers.

    For the insurance industry, and why they in general favored Obamacare, they are looking at some major increases in revenue. Not only upfront as the “mandate” means people have to buy policies from those very same evil empire soul sucking devil spawned insurance companies, (sarcasm…) but the reimbursement system is structured with incentives through Medicare CMS and performance metrics. Insurance companies are going to be rewarded for high scores from customers. Think car repairs at the dealer. You take your car in, you pick it up, you get the proverbial customer service survey card, the service writer assist you in understanding which answers you need to supply. Same thing is going to happen with healthcare financing. As a consumer you will be surveyed. Yep, just like the car dealership repair place. IF you score your access, etc., basically the insurance company high, the insurance company gets bonus from Medicare/CMS. MAJOR bonus. So even though Obama out of one side of his mouth thinks the CEO of United Health Insurance is Darth Vader incarnate, Obamacare puts huge chunks of change into the insurance company’s pockets. Wonder why as a group the health insurance industry supported and supports Obamacare?

    Why is that relevant to this article? Because all that money that is going to be given to the insurance industry, can’t be used for operating expenses. It can only be used to fund new programs, read costly overhead for managers and program development, for insurance company members. Those bonuses can’t be used to increase reimbursement for in home health care workers.

    So when I say Obamacare sucks. Obamacare SUCKS. Obama and the left want to make the opposition to Obamacare all about politics. However there are substantial factual reasons to be against Obamacare. It fixes NOTHING and makes matters worse on many levels.

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/07/160758/home-health-workers-sweat-obama.html

  • Jim

    If you’d like to do further research on the CMS/Medicare reward system you can start here.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-Star_Quality_Rating_System_for_Medicare_Advantage_Plans