Expanding Health-Care Access in the United States

The United States has never assured the human right to health, including the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and access to all medical services. While there is some public financing of health care, mainly for older people and low-income children, the country largely relies on private health insurers and providers using a decentralized and lightly regulated market-based system. This publication focuses on the ways in which women have been impacted by the Affordable Care Act (usually referred to as ACA or ‘Obamacare’).