[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13065]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                             WOMEN'S HEALTH

  (Ms. BONAMICI asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. BONAMICI. Madam Speaker, this is an important day for women 
across this great country. Starting today, all new health insurance 
plans will include coverage for important preventive health care for 
women. Many have looked forward to this date since the passage of the 
Affordable Care Act, and I'm thrilled that it's finally here.
  Starting today, women across the country will have access to 
essential preventive health care without copayments or deductibles. 
Women who were effectively barred from these services because of the 
cost will now be able to receive annual visits, testing for diseases 
like HPV and HIV, breast feeding support and education, domestic 
violence counseling, and contraceptives.
  This is an important step in lowering our country's health care costs 
and making sure that women have sufficient access to preventive health 
care.
  In my home State of Oregon, there are more than 633,000--and 47 
million across the country--who are going to benefit from this change. 
These are women who had unintended pregnancies because they couldn't 
access contraceptives. These are women who avoided going to the doctor 
because they didn't have the money, only to end up in the emergency 
room. And these are women whose pregnancies were endangered because of 
lack of prenatal care. Today this changes. Now all women can take 
control of their health.

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