No Surprise Here: Donald Trump’s Plan Would Be A Disaster for Women’s Health Across America

For Immediate Release: March 11, 2016

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“Trump’s health care plan eliminates all of the protections and advancements we’ve made over the past few decades”

Washington, DC –– Last night, Donald Trump released a seven point “health care” plan that would repeal the Affordable Care Act and make Medicaid into a block grant –– both of which would be devastating for women in this country. Trump’s health care plan also fails to mention women or reproductive health care once — no surprise from the candidate who claims to love women while in the same breath pledging to ban abortion and block “millions and millions of women” from essential, lifesaving care.

It stands in stark contrast with Hillary Clinton’s health care plan, which builds on the Affordable Care Act and clearly outlines a path forward to ensure every American — regardless of immigration status — has access to affordable health care coverage, and that the considerable gains we’ve made for women’s health are not just protected but expanded.

Quote from Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

“Donald Trump’s health care plan would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so deadly serious. Trump’s health care plan eliminates all of the protections and advancements we’ve made over the past few decades –– and would make things decidedly worse for women. Women would lose access to birth control, could be charged more than men for health insurance, could have domestic violence and pregnancy disqualify them from health insurance coverage, would no longer be able to turn to Planned Parenthood for care, and would be banned from accessing abortion safely or legally. In short, Donald Trump’s health care plan would be a disaster for women.

“And it’s not just women. Trump’s plan fails to address the discrimination that promotes health disparities, and his plan states that keeping undocumented people out of the country will make healthcare more affordable, suggesting that undocumented immigrants don’t deserve health care. America needs a president who will move our country forward, and protect the progress that we’ve made, not tear that progress down.”

 

Background: Trump’s Plan Would Decimate Women’s Access to Health Care

 

What would Trump’s plan mean for women’s health?

• Eliminating Birth Control Coverage: Trump’s plan would eliminate the affordable care act and the protections and advancements for women’s health that have come with it. Currently, more than 55 million women have access to no-copay birth control –– saving women an estimated $1.4 billion annually. Trump’s plan would slash this, and offers no alternative.

• Medicaid Block Grants: Not only does this policy not make clear how consumers would get improved access, let alone maintain the care they currently have, but it would leave the administration of critical health care programs for low-income people at the mercy of governors and statehouses who are hostile to women’s health. Many of these governors and statehouses have already done everything in their power to block access to birth control, STI testing and treatment, and cancer screenings –– Trump would give them even more freedom to restrict access.

• Gender Rating and Preexisting Conditions: By eliminating the Affordable Care Act without specifically addressing alternatives, his plan would erase the protections that currently exist for women. Women would no longer be protected from being charged more for health care simply because of their gender. And health insurance companies would be free to treat things like domestic violence or pregnancy as disqualifying pre-existing conditions, blocking women from essential health care.

• It fails to address women, women’s health or reproductive health care: Explicitly addressing gender and reproductive health can be essential to ensuring care. Currently, the ACA prohibits health insurance issuers from imposing cost-sharing on women’s preventive health services, including all 18 FDA-approved contraceptive methods — giving millions of women coverage for the birth control option that works best for them without cost-sharing. Without explicit protections for birth control and reproductive health care, it is possible women would lose the extensive coverage and protections they now receive under the Affordable Care Act.

• Ignoring discrimination or health disparities. Trump’s plan does not address discrimination, which perpetuates harmful disparities and poses additional barriers to health care access for women, as well as communities of color, low income women and men, members of the LGBTQ community, and other populations, and perpetuates harmful disparities. The Affordable Care Act took important steps toward eliminating discrimination through Section 1557 – the federal health care law’s civil rights provision – which prohibits discrimination, not only in coverage but also in the access to facilities and delivery of services. Trump’s plan, by contrast, does not outline any specific commitment to continuing or building upon the nondiscrimination protections in the ACA, including the first-of-its-kind protection against sex discrimination, meaning that those protections could potentially be lost if this health care plan were adopted. Strong antidiscrimination protections, along with targeted investments to reach key populations, will be key to erasing the legacy of health disparities in this country.

• Preventing immigrants from receiving health care: Trump’s plan also singles out undocumented immigrants as people undeserving of health care. By treating one group of people’s health as expendable, he would perpetuate health care inequity and discrimination in our health care system. A truly comprehensive health care plan, like Hillary Clinton’s, would address how we can ensure everyone — regardless of immigration status — has access to health care, not how we can keep some people from accessing the health care they need.

Background: The Affordable Care Act Has Had Tremendous Benefits for Women

• Thanks to the Affordable Care Act the number of uninsured women has declined 8.1 percentage points. A September report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that nearly 8.2 million adult women have gained coverage.

• One of the most immediate was its birth control benefit — thanks to whichmore than 55 million women are now eligible for birth control without a copay.

• A recent study published in Health Affairs found that the Affordable Care Act has saved women an estimated $1.4 billion a year on birth control pills alone — showing the clear economic impact that access to no-copay birth control has had on women’s lives.

  • The study found that the mean out-of pocket expense for the pill declined by 38 percent between June 2012 and June 2013 and declined 68 percent for IUDs in the same time period.

  • The study also found that before the birth control benefit went into effect, contraceptive costs accounted for between 30 and 44 percent of women’s total out-of-pocket health care costs.

• The Affordable Care Act also includes a provision that prevents insurance companies from using what’s called a “gender rating” to charge women higher premiums than men for the same benefits.

• Before this provision went into effect in 2014,women paid an estimated $1 billion more than men for the same health care plans.