Christina Quintana: Cutting prevention from health care coverage would not pay off

Obamacare expanded coverage for women’s health and well-being. This expansion eliminated cost sharing of preventative services such as mammograms, pap smear, prenatal care, contraception and counseling, breastfeeding support and supply, screening for HIV, HPV, STDs, gestational DM and the screening and prevention of domestic violence.

I am a strong advocate of health care prevention and promotion. I hope the repeal and replacement plan will not cut these preventative coverages to women and children. I understand preventative services are not free. However, cutting the federal budget on these services might mean dealing with higher health-care costs from the consequences of unwanted pregnancies, chronic conditions such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, neonatal malnutrition, birth defects from folic acid deficiency, diabetes mellitus, STDs, mental disorders as consequence of domestic violence and abuse, etc.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Christina Quintana: Cutting prevention from health care coverage would not pay off."