Press for Progress: International Women’s Day
This International Women’s Day, Legal Council is celebrating all of the historic gains to women’s coverage won through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion! With these expansive health policies, women now have greater access to maternity care, improved breast cancer care, and the guarantee that insurance companies cannot charge women more for coverage.
Other gains for women’s coverage include:
- States that expanded Medicaid (including Illinois!) saw improved newborn outcomes, with significant decreases in infant mortality. (Newsweek, Jan. 31, 2018)
- Uninsured rate for women of reproductive age decreased. (Women’s Health Issues Journal, Feb. 28, 2018)
- Uninsured rate for women with gynecologic cancer decreased. (Gynecologic Oncology, June 2017)
- With lower costs, more women received mammogram screenings, improving the care and prevention of breast cancer. (Brown University, Jan. 17, 2018)
Despite these gains, we also know that the fight for health justice isn’t over. Recent attacks on the Affordable Care Act threaten to take away these hard-won achievements. Not to mention Illinois faces its own roadblocks in coverage for women: 7.7% of Illinois women ages 18-64 are uninsured, compared to 10.6% women uninsured nationally.
There’s still much to be done, but with your help, we can continue the fight for health equity and health justice for all.
