10 Health Reform Provisions That Affect Women

Existing Offices of Women's Health now reside in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

3. The Senate bill would prohibit a health plan from requiring patients seeking care from an obstetrician/gynecologist to first obtain prior authorization. This prohibition would take effect six months after a woman signs up with a health plan.

4. Effective in 2014, the Senate bill would preclude health plans from categorizing domestic violence as a pre-existing condition.

5. The guaranteed issue provisions of both bills would stop once and for all any health plan practice of denying a woman care or coverage if she has had a Caesarean section.

6. The Senate bill specifies that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's controversial November recommendation on frequency of mammography for women would not be used to deny women mammography screening.

7. The Senate bill also calls for breast cancer screening and health education for young women, especially those in high-risk populations. And the National Institutes of Health is directed to "conduct research to develop and validate new screening tests and methods for prevention and early detection of breast cancer in young women."

8. Both bills would prohibit health plans from imposing lifetime coverage limits, after which the insured would have to pay all costs. Under the Senate bill, lifetime limits are completely prohibited and annual spending caps imposed prior to 2014 may be established only as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sees fit.

9. Both Senate and House bills would require all insurance plans sold through an exchange to cover maternity care, although Codispoti issues caution about the fact that the term has yet to be specifically defined. For example, there are questions whether these plans would cover prenatal care, labor and delivery, and well baby, well child care programs.

10. The Senate bill specifies programs and payment to cover comprehensive tobacco cessation programs for pregnant women in Medicaid, in an effort to reduce developmental and other problems in newborns.

There are several other provisions in the proposed legislation that would affect women more than men, but many of them won't be heard over the abortion debate.