ACA rule requires insurers to cover women's preventive care with no copays

The Obama administration announced earlier this week that, under a provision in the Affordable Care Act, health insurance plans must cover a series of preventive care practices, including birth control, with no copays (Source: “Insurers must cover birth control with no copays,” Associated Press via Cleveland Plain-Dealer).

Among other preventive care covered under the rule are breast pumps for nursing mothers, an annual “well-woman” physical, screenings for the virus that causes cervical cancer and for gestational diabetes and counseling on domestic violence. The preventive services that will be required to be made available with no cost sharing, effective Jan. 1, 2013, were all recommended in a report released last month by the Institute of Medicine.