A group of doctors has recommended that the Affordable Care Act expand the list of women’smedical services that women should be able to receive at nocost.

There are currently eight core women’s services that insurers are required tocover without charging a copay. In addition to birth control,insurers must cover the full cost of “well-woman visits, screeningand/or counseling for sexually transmitted infections, domestic violence and gestational diabetes aswell as breastfeeding support and supplies,” according to NPR.

Unlike many other provisions of the ACA, those requirementsapply to all health plans, including those purchased outside of theACA marketplace. They have been in effect since 2012.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine,after spending five years studying the issue, recommended thatwomen also receive free mammograms every one or two years startingat age 40. Currently, women generally are not advised to begingetting screened for breast cancer until 50 unless they are deemedto be at a higher-than-average risk due to family history of thecondition.

If doctors need to run any subsequent tests associated with themammogram, such as a biopsy, they should also be free to thepatient, said the group.

Women should continue to receive mammograms at least once everytwo years until at least age 75, the report said. After that age,it added, “the decision to discontinue screening mammography shouldbe also based on a shared decision making process that includes thewomen’s health status and longevity.”

The value of a number of cancer screenings, includingmammograms, has come under a cloud of skepticism in recent years. Amajor study published in 2014, based on 90,000 women over a 25-yearperiod, found that breast cancer patients who had receivedmammograms were no more likely to survive the disease than thosewho had not.

“The decision to have a mammogram should not be a slam dunk,”Dr. Russell P. Harris, an expert on cancer screenings at theUniversity of North Carolina, told The New York Times at the time.

Separately, the report recommended that health plans also covermale contraception, such as condoms and vasectomies, for free.

"The best contraceptive method for a woman at a particular timemay be her partner," Adam Sonfield of the Guttmacher Institute, anonprofit that focuses on reproductive health, told NPR.