Warren: Affordable Care Act Showing Results for Massachusetts Families

The following is a press release from Elizabeth Warren's U.S. Senate campaign:

As two important provisions of the Affordable Care Act reform go into effect Aug. 1., U.S. Senate candidate and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren praised the positive benefits that the health care reform law is providing to women and families across the Commonwealth.

"By ensuring that insurance companies cover key preventive health services free of charge, the Affordable Care Act is already providing real benefits to women and families here in Massachusetts and across the country," said Warren. "Scott Brown and the Republican Party want to tear up the health care reforms, end these benefits, and spend more time refighting political battles. This is wrong, and I will fight to protect health care reform so that families throughout the Commonwealth will have access to high quality and affordable care."

As of Aug. 1, whenever insurance plans come up for their annual renewal, the companies will be required to cover key preventive services for women free of charge. This change in the law will give women greater control over their health care decisions and ultimately will save lives.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 47 million women nationwide, including over 1.2 million Massachusetts women, are in health plans that must cover these new preventive services without charging a co-pay, co-insurance, or deductible.

As a result of President Obama's health care reform law, women now have access to preventive services such as mammograms, cervical cancer testing, cholesterol screenings, and flu shots, free of charge, as part of their insurance coverage. The new provisions that go into effect today will provide women with additional services including domestic violence screening, contraceptive education, sexually transmitted infections counseling, and HIV screening and counseling.