However, only a few years after President Obama’s Affordable Care Act helped reduce medical costs for women through Medicaid coverage, the program is now under threat as the Trump administration seeks to undo those benefits.
Health insurance coverage is key to women’s access to care, overall health, and economic security or stability. However, in the United State women’s figures are a constant political battleground. This is the only developed country with no universal health coverage and one of only a few with no guaranteed paid maternity leave. Compared to women in Canada or Europe, it is harder for Americans to take time off work to see a doctor, or get affordable child care. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) changed the landscape of the individual health insurance market for women by allowing about 7.5 million women ages 18–64 gained Medicaid coverage, a growth of 47 percent nationally between the years of 2013-2015. Before its full implementation, women were …show more content…
This comes after the Administration’s recent rescission of Obama-era guidance to states clarifying federal law barring discrimination against certain Medicaid family planning providers namely Planned Parenthood health centers. According to the women’s health organization’s own estimates, about 80 percent of its millions of patients rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control; without access, unintended pregnancy as well as abortion rates would rise dramatically. This ideological attack not only put at risk access to care, including vital preventive services, but also threatens women’s ability to see a family planning provider of their choice that they trust.
In addition to slashing Medicaid, Planned Parenthood and the ACA, the budget proposal also ends the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program which provides crucial, objective sex education to 1.2 million young people across the country. Comprehensive sexual health education is strongly correlated with lower rates of teen pregnancy, along with safer and healthier relationships and stronger self-esteem. Instead of supporting effective programs like TPPP, Trump’s Budget would increase investment in abstinence-only education, despite