Obama Administration Has It Covered, Ladies

Yet another meaningful victory for women, the Obama administration, and the ACA:  the Department of Health and Human Services has issued guidelines on coverage for women's health under the new health care law and is requiring health insurers to cover women's preventative care and birth control as of August 2012.

The mandate from the Health and Human Services Department represents a landmark decision in a decades-long debate on women's health issues that has pitted family planning groups against conservative organizations.

"Under the law, we're making it illegal to charge women more just because of their gender," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday.

The guidelines, a product of last year's healthcare overhaul, go into effect on Monday, and require insurers to do away with co-payments on coverage of preventive care services for women in all new plans beginning in August 2012.

The rules largely follow recommendations from a scientific advisory group released last month.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) said in a July report that all government-approved birth control methods -- including the "morning-after pill," taken shortly after sexual intercourse to stop a pregnancy -- should be included in the U.S. list of preventive health services.

The newly required coverage also includes free screenings for gestational diabetes, testing for human papillomavirus in women over 30, counseling for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and screening for domestic violence.

"Today is a historic victory for women's health and women across the country," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "The decision by HHS is monumental for millions of women."

Big, massive check mark on President Obama's record in office in the "promise kept" column.  Bon will probably have a lot more to say about this as well, this has been a major issue that she's been talking about.

These are the kind of positive changes that we said were coming with the passage of ACA and lo and behold these benefits are kicking in now that the law has been in effect for a while.  Yes, we've got another year to go before it's fully implemented, but it's coming.  This is also why 2012's election is so vital in order to safeguard these gains.