Trending News Today: Trump Healthcare Reform Could Lead to Higher Premiums for Women

Under President-elect Donald Trump’s potential healthcare plan, women could face higher premiums and limited access to contraceptives and maternity services. Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, only 13% of individual health plans included coverage of maternity services for a 30-year-old woman, and some other plans offered an add-on benefit that would pay for a fixed amount, according to Kaiser Health News. Additionally, a 40-year-old woman who was a non-smoker was charged more for an individual plan before the Affordable Care Act than a 40-year-old man who smoked.

Serious and sometimes fatal infections associated with a device used during heart surgery demonstrates significant gaps in FDA monitoring processes, according to California Healthline. Federal regulators first became aware of the serious mycobacterial infections in 2014, but did not issue a public alert and a recall for this device until 2 years later. If the FDA acted faster, thousands of patients could have avoided serious infections that sometimes resulted in disability or death, according to the report.

President-elect Trump has chosen US Representative Tom Price as the Health and Human Services Secretary. This choice could lead to a total repeal of the Affordable Care Act, since Price has been studying how to dismantle it for the past 6 years, the New York Times reported. Price has introduced bills to Congress since 2009 that have detailed a complete replacement plan, and has said that the current health law interferes with medical decisions too much.