More American Women Got Mammograms Thanks to Obamacare

While Congress grapples over the fate of Obamacare, a new study shows that President Obama’s embattled health care plan helped increase the use of mammography among American women.

The study, published in the American Cancer Society’s journal Cancer, revealed women across all economic subgroups were more likely to go for a mammogram after Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented. This was due in part to the elimination of out-of-pocket expenses for the preventative health-care services, according to the study. However colonoscopy, another preventative screening test, did not see any increases.

Gregory Cooper, the lead author of the study, and his co-authors looked at claims from Medicare beneficiaries, who were 70 and older, before and after the implementation of ACA. “We wanted to see, as a natural experiment, what happens when you change the financial burden on preventive services,” Cooper, program director of gastroenterology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, told CNN.

The Republican party and the President-elect Donald Trump have said that they will repeal and replace Obamacare, but it remains unclear what parts of the act will be replaced. “We don’t know what the future of Obamacare is,” Cooper told CNN. “I haven’t heard anything about preventive services, but I would argue that, even if the program itself is dismantled, that would be a worthy benefit to keep.”