Affordable Care Act offers women greater access to preventive services

Preventative health care has been a chronic challenge in the American healthcare system, but due to the fact that chronic diseases – which make up about 75 percent of the country’s health spending, and that they are the cause of 70 percent of deaths every year – are frequently preventable, this type of healthcare is now being pushed into the spotlight. Affordability has been one of the main problems holding back preventive services. Currently, most of these therapies, even those with insurance coverage, are subject to cost sharing, such as…

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Department of Health and Human Services approves full coverage of birth control

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a statement that included new guidelines regarding the required full coverage of a number of women’s preventative services – such as voluntary sterilization and birth control – by health insurance companies from August 1, 2012 onward. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from the HHS explained that the department’s decision was made as a part of the strategy from the Affordable Care Act to halt problems before they occur. In a press release, she said that the new coverage guidelines “are based…

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