Health Care Reform:

Health Reform Law: What It Means for Women

No Free Lunch

Not everyone is sold on the benefits of Obamacare, particularly as they pertain to women.

"It is nowhere near as good as it looks," says Michael D. Tanner, senior fellow at Cato Institute, a nonprofit libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C.

For example, 46% of newly insured will be put on Medicaid, not a private insurance plan. Medicaid is the federal health plan for low-income families. "Medicaid provides very poor quality care and people on Medicaid have a hard time accessing a primary care doctor," he says, adding that about one-third of such doctor's don't accept Medicaid.

Commonwealth Fund's Collins says that the new act also sweetens the pot for health care providers, offering them more incentives to take Medicaid patients, she says.

"Getting rid of co-payments for mammograms and other screening tests are of marginal benefit, but that comes at a cost to taxpayers or insurance premium payers," Cato says.

Along the same lines, parents who want their young adult children on their insurance will have to pay about $3,400 per child, per year, he says.

"There is no free lunch. Nobody is giving away health care."