Why Women Should Push for Healthcare Reform By Deborah Kotz Deborah Kotz – Wed Oct 21, 4:52 pm ET Supporting the government's healthcare reform efforts should be a no-brainer if you're a woman. That's according to Marcia Greenberger, copresident of the National Women's Law Center, who testified at a Senate hearing last week that the health insurance industry is rife with "unfair and discriminatory practices... including gender rating, the exclusion of healthcare services that only women need, and pre-existing-condition denials." For instance, women can be denied insurance if they've ever had a cesarean section or been the victim of domestic violence, she said.
Greenberger and her colleagues are fighting for the final healthcare bill to right what they see as some very serious wrongs. A new NWLC report, which examined the most popular insurance plans in every state, found:
--A whopping 95 percent of insurance companies charge women more than men for the same coverage for individual policies. For 60 percent of plans, a 40-year-old female who doesn't smoke will pay more for her policy than a 40-year-old male who does smoke.
--Some 25-year-old women are charged up to 84 percent more than men of the same age for individual health plans that exclude maternity coverage.
--Gender rating of premiums also occurs in group plans provided by employers. Insurance companies in most states are allowed to charge a business more for coverage of its female employees. Those with a predominantly female workforce, like firms that employ home health aides, often get hit with superhigh costs that get passed on to employees in the form of higher contributions. Or these companies may buy plans that cover less or offer no coverage at all.
Women get charged more, Greenberger tells me, because they see doctors more often than men do--at least before age 55. "While some companies do charge men more from ages 55 to 65, at which point Medicare kicks in, others continue to charge women more or just give very small price breaks," she says. And, no, maternity care doesn't add to the costs because the vast majority of individual plans don't provide it or provide it only as an expensive rider. "It's inadequate and prohibitively expensive," says Greenberger, who is lobbying Congress to include mandatory coverage as part of health reform. She'd also like to see contraception and Pap smears covered as part of the preventive health package in the reform bill. The House bill and two different Senate versions all include some components of this, but she's worried they could fall out of the final version sent to the president to sign.
Sanity in Sight? Congresswomen Push for Gender Equality in Health-Care Reform
By Carole Joffe, Ms. Washington Correspondent
At a Democratic Women’s Working Group press event in front of the Capitol, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Congresswomen decried the sexist, irrational and often cruel health care system with which American women now contend, and vowed to pass legislation to fix it.
“We will be finalizing a bill soon [that] will address the issue that women are charged nearly 50 percent more than men for the same coverage when they purchase insurance in the individual market," said the Speaker. "We will eliminate co-pays and deductibles for recommended preventive services--such as early screenings, mammograms, well baby care, well child care, and maternity services. ... [Under the current system] if you have ever had a C-section, [it's a] pre-existing medical condition. ... That will all be gone under this legislation.”
The legislation—H.R. 3200—would address the gross failures of the current system, particularly when it comes to women. No more "gender rating," the practice of charging women up to 140% for the same coverage as men (which Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, co-chair of the Congressional Women’s Caucus, called "ugly. ") No more denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Coverage for maternity care, currently missing from 79 percent of health plans. Coverage for preventive care. And subsidies for those unable to purchase their own insurance.
“The women’s movement has worked to eliminate sex-discrimination in health insurance for 40 years, and at last this reform would eliminate it,” said Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal, who also spoke at the event.
>--A whopping 95 percent of insurance companies charge women more than men for the same coverage for individual policies. For 60 percent of plans, a 40-year-old female who doesn't smoke will pay more for her policy than a 40-year-old male who does smoke.<
Actually, from a business standpoint this makes sense. Women on average use their health insurance coverage more and therefore provide a greater cost to the insurer. It makes sense they'd charge more. Is it fair? Maybe not, but unless you're willing to give up your preferential treatment regarding vehicle insurance (at which women at all ages pay less than men on average), you're not going to see them budge on this.
Actually, from a business standpoint this makes sense. Women on average use their health insurance coverage more and therefore provide a greater cost to the insurer. It makes sense they'd charge more. Is it fair? Maybe not, but unless you're willing to give up your preferential treatment regarding vehicle insurance (at which women at all ages pay less than men on average), you're not going to see them budge on this.
What's unfair about those who utilize more services should naturally pay more ? Anything less is another form of discrimination.
I'm so glad there is someone besides me with a business sense in this part of the forum.
Well, no offense Sandy, but I think that the issue is far more complicated than that. One reason that women go to the doctor more often is that women are more likely to take advantage of preventative healthcare options such as medical testing. This is from a blog called "Machines Like Us". This article is entitled "Men’s masculinity beliefs are a barrier to preventative healthcare".
"Previous research indicates that, compared to women, a man’s life expectancy at birth is five years less and that men have higher rates of 12 of the 15 leading causes of death. Forgoing or delaying preventative and primary health is known to be an important contributor of poor health among middle-aged and older individuals.
Springer and her co-author found that endorsement of masculine ideals negatively influenced preventative care seeking regardless of a man’s prior health, family background, marital status and an array of socioeconomic variables. Education—despite its well-established beneficial effect on health behaviors—also was a moderating factor. Highly educated men with the strongest-held masculinity beliefs were just as unlikely to obtain preventative care as men with lower levels of education.
Using a sample of 1,000 middle-aged men drawn from responses to the 2004 wave of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the researchers reviewed the respondents’ masculinity beliefs, socioeconomic status (as measured by education and occupational status) and receipt of three commonly recommended annual healthcare procedures for middle-aged men: a complete exam/physical, flu shot and a prostate examination. The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study is a large-scale study of the education, careers, health and aging of adolescent males and females who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. The study was administered again in 1964, 1975, 1992 and 2004."
Many government policy decisions are aimed at achieving laudable goals. One laudable goal would be to encourage the use of preventative health measures. There are plenty of "business reasons" to do that - like preventing the early, preventable deaths of employees which would lower employers' costs by avoiding the recruiting of new employees and the cost of training them.
