Today marks the seventh anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s passage under the Obama Administration. It is one of the greatest advancements in women’s health in a generation, one of the most important aspects of the legislation being the coverage of preventive clinical care including contraception, cancer screenings, and well-woman visits. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would send women’s health care backwards which is something we cannot stand for. 

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Sara* was a 36 year old African American woman who came to me for her annual preventive care visit. When asked how long it had been since she’d been to a gynecologist she said, “It’s been a minute.” Further questions revealed that “a minute” was about 10 years, and she hadn’t had health insurance in that time, since the birth of her second child. Like many people, she worked a couple part-time jobs that didn’t provide insurance; she made too much to get Medicaid, and she couldn’t afford to buy insurance.

She was able to afford insurance for the first time in years through the Affordable Care Act. At that initial visit, she had a highly abnormal pap smear; further testing revealed a serious dysplasia, and then the pre-cancer was removed completely with an excisional biopsy a few weeks later. Based on her pap test, she had about a 50% chance of developing a deadly invasive cancer within 5 years, if she had not received treatment. Without the access provided by the ACA, this young woman could have been dying in her mid-forties from a completely preventable cancer.

*Name changed