AMARILLO, TEXAS -- There's been a lot of talk about health care in the past few years and today, women's health care took another leap.
The US Department of Health and Human Services approved new guidelines that will require health insurance to cover certain women's preventative services... for free.
The big one -- free birth control, and other services will also be available.
"Some of the screenings that are included, they're screening for diabetes, screening for human papillomavirus along with your pap test, screening for HIV, discussions about breast feeding and breast feeding equipment, discussions about sexually transmitted disease prevention", said Women's Health Care Associates, Dr. Brian Eade.
These new plans will not go into effect until August 1, 2012 but some health care providers are already expecting it to have a huge impact on women.
"The access to things like birth control will be much better for women and that's always a good thinking because if women can't be abstinate, the next best thing is to have birth control to avoid an undesired pregnancy", said Chief Executive Officer atHaven Health Clinics, Ron Barwick.
Barwick says he's even hoping pregnancy rates will take a turn for the better.
"I'm hoping that it will make the teen pregnancy rate, which his very high in this area, I'm hoping it'll make it go way, way down. The availability of birth control will make sure that people don't get pregnant when they don't want to", continued Barwick.
However, these new plans will cause an increase in health insurance premiums, something that others feel is an example of too much government meddling between physicians and their patients.
"As a physician, I'm all for additional access. You know as a citizen though, it concerns me a little bit that it's going to increase the cost of health case premiums. Whenever you start getting politics and you get it mixed up in the relationship between the physician and their patient, you start having care that's skewed off in political directions where it doesn't need to be", added Eade.
But plans have already been approved and women's co-pays for these services this time next year will have become obsolete.
For a complete list of the services that will be included for women, check out theUS Department of Health and Human Services online.
