111^th Congress – 1st Session

Ensuring Health Care Coverage for All Women

One in five women of childbearing age and one in seven pregnant women are uninsured, and many are underinsured, lacking maternity coverage.  Through our Health Care for Women, Health Care for All campaign, ACOG will work to ensure that the needs of women of all ages are addressed in health care reform, with a goal of achieving universal coverage to comprehensive, high-quality care for everyone in the United States.

Protect Women’s Ob-Gyn Care

Many women rely on their ob-gyns as their most-trusted personal primary care physicians.  Ob-gyns are also specialists in women’s health care, including oncology and infertility, care needs that must often be managed over a long term.  Women must have the ability to see their ob-gyns for primary and specialty care. 

•        Reintroduction of ACOG’s Women’s Health Resolution in House and Senate
•       ACOG’s Women’s Medical Home Initiative
•       Women’s Health Coordinated Congressional Events
•       Inclusion of women’s medical home concept in reform proposals
•       Inclusion of medical liability reform in health reform proposals

Maintain High-Quality Patient Care

ACOG supports efforts to improve the quality of patient care and the use of ob-gyn performance measures developed by our specialty.  ACOG will work to ensure that performance measurement rewards physicians; is based on a stable and fair Medicare physician payment system; includes ACOG involvement from the onset; and is phased in.

•       Comparative Effectiveness

Encourage Investment in Health Information Technology

Health reform, women’s medical homes, comparative effectiveness, and patient safety and quality all rely on the existence and use of integrated affordable information technology systems.   Network design and technologies must ensure privacy, interoperability, security, and accessibility.

•         Ensure reimbursement
•        Guard against inappropriate use of data

Ensure Adequate Medicare Physician Payment

Medicare reimbursement is scheduled for severe cuts in the next several years, compromising ob-gyns’ ability to treat Medicare patients and jeopardizing payments from private insurers.  ACOG will work with Congress to ensure the stability and adequacy of Medicare payment rates for physicians.

•       Analyze proposals for impact on ob-gyns
•       Position ACOG to benefit from medical home proposals

Prevent Unintended Pregnancies and Reduce the Need for Abortions

Every pregnancy should be wanted and healthy.  ACOG will promote federal funding of pregnancy prevention programs; access to contraception; and ensure the use of medically-accurate information.

•         Support Prevention First Act, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Reid and ACOG  Public Service Award Recipient Rep. Louise Slaughter

Strengthen the Health Care Safety Net

Medicaid covers 41% of all US pregnancies, 20 million adult women, and 28 million children.  SCHIP is also an important source of health care coverage for girls up to age 19, as well as some pregnant women.  ACOG will work to strengthen these health care safety net programs for low-income women and adolescents.              

•  Support Medical and SCHIP reauthorization and improvements               
• Support reauthorization and funding  for the federal Health Resources and Services Administration          (HRSA) which provides low income women prenatal and pregnancy care through community health centers and screening tests through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program

Support Women’s Health Research and Outreach

Research is needed to improve the health of women throughout their lives.  ACOG advocates for programs that support medical research, translate research into information that can be used in ob-gyn practices, and provide direct care to women.

•         Support prematurity research at NIH
•         Support outreach at the Centers for Disease Control