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FACT CHECK: Woman could pay more without Affordable Care Act

Kamala Harris says it means women could be charged more than men. 2 Wants To Know gets answers.
Cost of healthcare

RALEIGH, N.C. — Healthcare was a huge topic at Kamala Harris's stop in Raleigh Monday. The vice-presidential candidate said President Trump's Supreme Court pick could lead to women paying more for medical coverage.

"Getting rid of the Affordable Care Act will take us back to a time where you could charge a woman more for her healthcare than you can charge a man just because she's a woman."

Look at the timeline on this one. On November 10th, the Supreme Court will take up a case that could overturn the whole Affordable Care Act. If they strike it down, legal experts say federal law goes back to 2010 before the ACA went into effect.

Before the ACA there was no protection requiring insurance companies to charge men and women the same price. In fact according to the National Women's Law Center, back then 60 percent of individual insurance plans charged a non-smoking woman more than a man who smoked. And only 13 percent of plans offered maternity benefits without additional costs, something that became required under the Affordable Care Act.

Here's the but in this whole timeline. All of this is what could happen to women, but Republicans say they have another plan to fix these problems. Under the GOP timeline, if the Court strikes down the ACA, Republicans want to pass their own healthcare plan. It's unclear what that would mean for women and how long it could take before passing - if ever. So know: if the ACA goes away, there will at least be a little while where women can be charged more again.






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