The new health care law covers preventive care but leaves open the question of who will provide it to women: general practitioners or ob-gyns? And who decides? <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Credit: Alex E. Proimos on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0). <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(WOMENSENEWS)--Half of all American women have skipped health visits, follow ups or treatments because they couldn't afford to pay, according to a 2011 report by the Commonwealth Fund. <\/p>\n
Women have also been paying higher health insurance premiums, with 92 percent of U.S. health plans practicing gender rating, according to a 2010 report from the National Women's Law Center. The report added that 56 percent of plans charge non-smoking women more for coverage than male smokers. <\/p>\n
All that should change as President Barack Obama's reelection lowers the uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act and the new law continues its gradual implementation. <\/p>\n
The predictable effect will be a major expansion of women's preventive health care. More in doubt, however, is which doctors will provide that care. <\/p>\n
Currently, many healthy women with adequate health coverage have two primary care doctors, in contrast to men, who generally have one. Women see a primary care doctor and an obstetrician-gynecologist, a specialist who often requires a referral under current systems. <\/p>\n
But that could change since the new health law defines certain services as primary or preventive care but leaves open the matter of who provides that care. It could be a general practitioner or internist or another primary-care provider. Or it could be the physician who does a woman's annual Pap smear, while she's in the office for a regular visit. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Health Question for Women: Two Doctors or One?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The new health care law covers preventive care but leaves open the question of who will provide it to women: general practitioners or ob-gyns? And who decides Continue reading