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Rep. Rosa DeLauro

Madam Speaker, among the many beneficial reforms for women in the Affordable Care Act passed 2 years ago this week is an end to the discriminatory practice of gender rating in which individual women are charged more than men for the same coverage. We know for a fact that these sorts of discriminatory policies are not something that insurers would just change on their own.

According to a report that the National Women's Law Center released earlier this week, over 90 percent of the best-selling plans in States that have not already banned gender rating still charge women more than men for the very same coverage. This costs women and their families approximately $1 billion a year. Because we fought--and we fought hard 2 years ago--gender rating will be a thing of the past in 2014. At long last, a woman's health will be put on equal footing with that of her spouse, her son, or her brother.

This is just one of the many benefits for women in the Affordable Care Act. I could not be more proud to have helped pass this piece of legislation, which will transform women's health in this country.