America's Frontline Physicians Oppose #Trumps Decision to Jeopardize Access to Women's Care
damn, more Trump damage!!
https://www.aafp.org/media-center/releases-statements/all/2018/contraceptive-access-rules.html
America’s Frontline Physicians Oppose the Administration’s Decision to Jeopardize Access to Women’s Preventive Care
For Immediate Release
November 8, 2018
In response to the release of the Trump administration’s final rules that will limit contraception access, the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, and American Psychiatric Association, collectively representing more than 423,000 of America's frontline physicians, issued this statement:
“Our organizations, which represent more than 423,000 physicians and medical students, stand together in opposition to the Administration’s final rules, “Religious Exemptions and Accommodations for Coverage of Certain Preventive Services under the Affordable Care Act” and “Moral Exemptions and Accommodations for Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act.” By undercutting women’s access to contraception, a key preventive service, at no out-of-pocket cost in private insurance plans, the final rules conflict with our firmly held belief that no woman should lose the coverage she has today.
“Efforts to decrease access to contraceptive services will have damaging effects on public health. The ability to prevent or plan the timing of a pregnancy directly contributes to women’s overall health and personal achievements. We know that when women have unintended pregnancies, they are more likely to delay prenatal care, resulting in a greater risk of complications during and following pregnancy for both the woman and her child. The final rules reject these facts and the corresponding recommendations of the medical community, jeopardizing many women’s ability to maintain a vital component of their health care.
“No-copay coverage of contraception has an undeniable positive effect on the health of women and families everywhere, as well as the economic health of the nation by saving money for taxpayers and state and federal governments. In 2010, unintended pregnancies cost approximately $21 billion in government expenditures. Likewise, before the ACA, women were spending between 30 percent and 44 percent of their total out-of-pocket health costs just on birth control. After the ACA, women saved approximately $1.4 billion on out-of-pocket costs for contraception in one year.
“These rules create a dangerous new standard for employers to deny their employees coverage based on their own moral objections. This interferes in the personal health care decisions of our patients, and inappropriately inserts a patient’s employer into the patient-physician relationship. In addition, these rules open the door to moral exemptions for other essential physician-recommended preventive services, such as immunizations. We urge the Administration to immediately withdraw these rules and instead focus on policies to expand access to evidence-based health care for all Americans.”
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