As the Republican-led Senate looks to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is commonly known, a new study looks at the impact ACA had on breast cancer prevention in women.
Since the inception of ACA’s coverage of preventive services, the study found that more people with breasts had mammograms, as opposed to before ACA’s coverage. The study monitored especially how the coverage impacted what tests those with a lower socioeconomic background had.
According to the study, the spike in mammograms was attributed to the shift in financial burden. Under ACA, the patients did not have to absorb the cost of the testing, it was covered under ACA’s preventive services.
“The removal of out-of-pocket expenditures may overcome a barrier to the receipt of recommended preventive services,” states the study’s results.
The CDC states that 1 in 8 women will develop a form of breast cancer during her lifetime. Of those who are diagnosed thanks to early preventive services, statistics show that their chances of dying from breast cancer reduce from 25-30%.
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