Congressman Brad Miller

For Immediate Release - March 21, 2012

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Contact: LuAnn Canipe (202) 225-6089 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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U.S. Rep. Brad Miller Defends Healthcare Rights for Women on the Second Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act

Washington, D.C. – As the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act approaches this week, Rep. Miller highlighted on the House floor today the benefits of the reform that help eliminate the gender gap in health insurance coverage for women.

In addition, the Energy and Commerce Committee staff has prepared a fact sheet for each congressional district across the country to show the benefits of the Affordable Health Care Act. Residents of the Triad and Triangle in North Carolina's 13th District can click here for more details.

The new health care law prohibits insurers from denying or rescinding coverage because of a pre-existing condition; prohibits insurers from placing a lifetime limit on coverage; requires insurers to permit parents to retain coverage for their children until their 26th birthday; provides a 50 percent discount for brand-name drugs for seniors in the Medicare Part D 'donut hole' coverage gap; and provides free Medicare coverage of key preventive services such as mammograms and colonoscopies.

Click here to view Congressman Miller's remarks on the House floor today: http://youtu.be/TboX9kGJ0iU

The full text of the Congressman's remarks:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the provisions in the Affordable Care Act that close the gender gap in health care.

Beginning in 2014, health insurers cannot charge women more just because of their gender.

Health insurers cannot deny coverage because of preexisting conditions, like having survived cancer, or having been pregnant, or having been a victim of domestic violence, a condition that is almost as disproportionately experienced by women as pregnancy.

And health plans will have to cover preventive services like mammograms, screening for cervical cancer, and yes, contraception.

Republicans in Congress are trying to block these and other reforms, so that health insurers or employers or members of Congress can make women's health and reproductive decisions rather than trust those decisions to women.

Mr. Speaker, women can make those decisions, they really don't need help from insurers or employers or politicians or radio talk show hosts.

Women want to make those important, personal decisions for themselves, and they should.

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