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# Affordable Care Act Asks for Free Preventive Health Care
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/affordable_care_act_asks_for_preventive_health_care_1507101216/
- Published: 2010-07-15T13:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T12:54:47.000Z
- Description: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says new Affordable Care Act rules will require new private plans to cover preventive care, citing 59 million adults without adequate immunization coverage and a study estimating screening, vaccines and counselling could save 100,000 lives a year.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Healthcare, Health News, #vivvo-import

If you are an avid news reader, you may have known that the White House is talking about the preventive care. That is, the Obama administration says that the Affordable Care Act will give millions of Americans access to preventive care through their private health insurance.

In a statement posted on the White House website, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says too many Americans today aren't getting the preventive health care they need.

Sebelius addresses a few issues below.

Immunizations: 59 million adults and 11 million children have private health insurance, but don't have adequate coverage for immunizations. And as many as 12 percent of children haven't visited a doctor in the last year.

Prenatal care: African-American mothers are less likely to receive prenatal care beginning in the 3rd trimester or do not get it at all.

Colon cancer screening: only 37 percent of Latinos received colon cancer screening in 2007, compared to whites. 

Sebelius cites a study as finding that colorectal and breast cancer screening, flu vaccines, counseling to help them quit smoking, and regular aspirin use to prevent strokes can save 100,000 people's lives each year.

The new rules have been released to require all new private health insurance plans with plan years beginning on or after Sept 23, 2010 to cover recommended preventive care without cost-sharing when provided by a network provider.

Specifically, services like blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol tests, cancer screenings, routine vaccinations, and well-baby visits will be provided without any cost on the side of the patients. No deductible, no co-pay and no co-insurance!

Sebelius offers an example to explain how the preventive care can help people. In California, a boy of Maggie Roberts was diagnosed with cancer during a routine checkup. The cancer was diagnosed early and the treatment was a success. The boy has survived a few years.

First Lady Michelle Obama said in a speech "Chronic and often preventable diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, are responsible for 7 of 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending."

She said "Under the Affordable Care Act, new insurance plans are required to provide preventive care without cost-sharing, which will remove financial barriers for many Americans to preventive services such as mammograms, colonoscopies and immunizations, help prevent disease and reduce costs."

A health observer commented that one same old thing that was not addressed is lifestyle modification including use of healthy diet and the majority of the preventive measures proposed to be covered in tine private insurance policies are aimed to diagnose diseases early so that doctors can treat them early and more people get screened.

Unfortunately any preventive measures covered in the insurance policy will need to get doctors involved, the observer said. Without doctors' and drugs' involvement, there is no prevention.

Want the insruance companies to cover costs for the dietary supplements you take like vitamin d which has been associated with a myriad of diseases from cancer to heart disease? That is not possible.

By Jimmy Downs