Misbehavin’ Notification: Healthcare IS a Woman’s Issue
Posted by YWM on September 1, 2009
Health Fracas Slows Pro-Woman Changes by Obama (8/28/09) lists many successes already achieved by the Obama administration for women. And while I agree that there is still a lot to do, I disagree that the current debate over health care reform is diverting the administration’s attention from the women’s agenda. Health care reform is a women’s issue- there is a lot at stake in this debate for women. Women have distinct health care needs, are increasingly heads of household and are the primary health care decision makers in most families. Women are more likely than men to report problems getting health care due to cost, regardless of whether they have health insurance or not. The current system is also failing small businesses which are increasingly women-owned. On average, small businesses pay up to 18 percent more than large firms for the same health insurance policy. The status quo is untenable for women, families and small businesses; so rather than characterizing this debate as bogging down the enactment of policies supportive of women, let’s understand it as one of the major reforms needed to help women.
BPW Foundation CEO Deborah L. Frett submitted this Letter to the Editor in response to the Women eNews article that published yesterday.
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zhak39 said
Here in North Carolina Senator Burr is trying to frame his take on health care reform as a women’s issue. In a newsletter he sent out this week he made a very clear statement upfront, “As I have stated before, I agree that we need health care reform so that Americans, regardless of whether they are male or female, can access affordable coverage.” It’s kind of puzzling that he had to proclaim that he was setting out to not discriminate specifically on the basis of gender but I guess some of his constituents needed the clarification.
He totally missed the boat on the points that you bring up and these issues need to be the crux of the health care payment system reform. According to him, the main issue in women’s health care is the rising cost of malpractice insurance for ob-gyns causing young doctors to choose different specialties. Like so many people, he equates ‘women’s health’ with a producing uterus.
Sometime I will have to point out to him that the organ that sets women apart is in between their ears, not, um, lower down.
espressodog said
Yes! Some of our Senators are not very enlighted. During the Finance Committee debate on the health care reform bill Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona said, “I don’t need maternity care. So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan had been arguing that insurers must be required to cover basic maternity care. She responded with a great zinger, “I think your mom probably did.”