Jessica Arons: 3 Ways Ending Obamacare Will Hurt Women

1. Women would lose coverage for no-cost preventative services.

Obamacare is good for women. Attacks on Obamacare are attacks on women's health and well-being.

More than 50 percent of women have delayed seeking medical care due to cost, and one-third of women report forgoing basic necessities to pay for health care.

Under Obamacare 45 million women have benefited from affordable preventive services like mammograms, Pap smears, and well-baby care. In August millions more will have no-cost access to contraception, screening for gestational diabetes, breastfeeding counseling and equipment, annual well-woman care, and screening and counseling for domestic violence and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and HPV. If Obamacare is overturned or repealed, millions of women would lose coverage for no-cost preventive services.

2. Insurers would be allowed to discriminate against women.

Currently, insurers in the individual market discriminate against women. Only 12 percent of plans sold in the individual market offer maternity coverage, and that calculation includes the nine states that require all individual-market plans to do so.

Women currently pay $1 billion more than men for the same plans on the individual market. Women can be denied coverage for having had breast cancer or a C-section or for being the victim of domestic violence or sexual assault. Obamacare prohibits all of those discriminatory practices starting in 2014.

3. Women would lose critical protections for themselves and their families.

Women, who earn less than men on average, will benefit from tax credits that help them pay health insurance premiums, and from an expansion in Medicaid. More than 10 million women will gain coverage under Medicaid when it expands in 2014.

Insurers can no longer place lifetime caps on the amount of money a plan will pay out and annual limits are being phased out. These measures are especially helpful for people who have chronic conditions. Women are more likely than men to suffer from a chronic condition and 39.5 million women have already been helped by eliminating lifetime caps.

In addition, families are strengthened due to provisions such as the one allowing adult children to stay on a parent's plan until age 26. 2.5 million young Americans have already gained health insurance through this provision. Women have made tremendous gains under the ACA. They can't afford to lose it now.