Healthcare Bill and Women: Worse Than We Thought?
November 9, 2009
by Anna Belle Pfau
|The opinions expressed herein and those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
The health insurance reform bills passed by the House and being considered by the Senate are not, contrary to beltway conventional wisdom, good for women. In fact, they will hurt women, as well as some men. I have my own ideas about what’s best for our nation in terms of addressing the health care issue, and I hope readers have given the matter a fair amount of thought and come up with their own conclusions. What I do know is that the bill that passed the House on Saturday night will hurt women especially in the areas of finance and in access to health care.
Everyone today is talking about the neat abortion amendment trick of Saturday night, though few have considered it yet for all its ramifications. But in addition, the bill will financially hurt women more than men. Not only do we have required health insurance purchases which will de facto translate into more costs for women (who earn less and tend to support more people with their income), the matter is complicated by two further factors: the rather large group of women who care for children without financial backing from fathers, and the fact that the bill does very little to address issues of inequality in the private market.
As to the first, 12.9 million families are single parent households. Of that number, 80% are women. These parents are forced to survive raising their children without the co-parent paying for his or her financial obligation. The law requires that individuals pay for their offspring, but the reality is that it only happens some of the time. I’ve read statistics as high as 62% of custodial mothers do not receive child support. The number is somewhat lower for men, but they will be affected too. A lot of these parents are barely making it, and some of them do not qualify for basic services. These folks might get a partial credit on their tax returns, but in the meantime they are going to have to figure out how to integrate a substantial sum of money for a family policy that covers the kids into a monthly budget. As I said before, this bill will make it substantially harder to make it out of the borderland between poverty and the working class, and will make entry into the middle class harder.
Now, about the private market: Employers are legally required to charge all employees the same amount for insurance coverage. The corporate market is the only place, ironically enough, where such financial fairness is required. Women in the private market purchasing individual policies (something a lot of working mothers who work for employers who do not provide insurance will have to do) can be and are charged higher premiums than men, which the insurance industry justifies with a lot of rhetoric about “child bearing” and complicated formulas which allow for what is called gender-rating. While the bill tosses out pre-existing condition underwriting and does curb gender-rating, but it does not ban cost adjusting and does not create a one-price, equal treatment opportunity plan. People will have the option to pay more money for better coverage, but if they have health issues which will cost more, that will be accounted for using cost adjusting. We already know what happens to women when this many exceptions are written into a bill.
Finally, about last night’s abortion amendment and the full ramifications. Consider that 87% of health insurance policies today cover abortion services. Now, ask yourself what that will look like in 2013 when this bill (if it passes; when it passes) goes into effect. What about 2015? 2018? People are not yet considering what a blow to abortion access this will represent. I have not even begun to examine how this will affect access to birth control, but the Hyde Amendment will likely complicate that as well. Pro-life politicians on both sides (but largely the Democratic side) accomplished in one night with insurance companies what it took Operation Rescue 20 years to do with abortion providers/clinics.
These are just a few reasons this bill is a bad bill, and a brief rundown of the major reasons it will disproportionately affect women. The big question is: Now what?
Thanks Anna Belle. We knew when they were having trouble getting this bill through they would tout it as helping women. Of course, as usual, this is not the case. Once again, the Dems selling women out!
Women nowdays are like those nurses that Richard Speck kept in his basement — so scared to risk their lives that they lost them. We’re so scared to risk choice that we’re not willing to fight for it, so we lose it.
Voting for choice has gotten NO women in power and choice whittled away untli we basically DO NOT HAVE IT. DO NOT FUCKING TELL ME WE CAN’T LOSE CHOICE — WE’VE LOST IT. It’s gone. Because we were too scared to play hardball. We were too chickenshit to fight for real, so there goes our reproductive health, right into the business end of Richard Speck’s knife. Wave bye-bye, all you idiots who won’t band together with other women because they aren’t pro-choice.
People can’t strategize. They can’t make second and third-order connections in their minds. Voting choice-only lost us choice and gender parity. Voting gender will gain us choice … but it will not be directly connected. It will be a second or third-order effect. However, it’s the only way we’ll get it. It’s like playing a shell game; you follow the math, and you win. Period. You start hemming and hawing, and you lose your shirt.
Besides, we’re already in a world without choice. Do you want to be in that world with NO WOMEN AT ALL IN POWER, or at least have a world without choice where your daughter can run for office without being threatened daily anth rape and dismemberment by a globe-spanning media? Make sense yet?
Perhaps women should stop funding politcal parties and start a slush fund to help finance our reproductive care. I hope everyone is contacting their represenatives and raising hell. Instutionalizing descrimination–can we file a class action lawsuit?
I’m against the whole colossal mess. It seems insane to me that we keep giving the government more of our money and more control of our lives and then we beg, petition, and lobby to try to get it back. They promise everyone the moon to get elected and then NOBODY winds up happy with what they do. Here’s a thought, why don’t we just keep our money, both the tax money and all the money we then donate trying to get them to spend it the way we want, cut out the middle man and support whatever we want with our own darn money. Then whoever we give it to (non-profits) is accountable because we can turn off the faucet at will.
On “Morning Joe” Claire McCaskill said that she would be comfortable with an amendment to the senate bill similar to Stupak. Apparently, Bob Casey is busy writing one for her. The Hatch amendment, which would require women to buy supplemental insurance if they want abortion coverage, has already been discussed.
Another problem with this bill is that parents are required to cover their children until they are 27 yrs old. The gov just gave us back a bunch of dependents! But then insurance companies are still allowed to charge more for older people’s insurance, 2:1 or 4:1 depending which version passes. So single mothers will get to provide insurance for their kids until they are 27, but the kids will not have to pay in to help lower her premiums at all. Young people will not be “burdened” with the cost of elderly people’s insurance premiums, apparently.
Thanks Anna Belle! This is an important issue that we need to be aware of and to fight.
Quoted from: National Women’s Law Center:
Find more information here: https://www.nwlc.org/reformmatters/
Download the two reports here: http://action.nwlc.org/site/Pa.....urn_Report
1. Still Nowhere to Turn: Insurance Companies Treat Women Like a Pre-Existing Condition, National Women’s Law Center (October 2009) The Center’s report provides sobering new data about the inequities that women face in health insurance.
http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/stillnowheretoturn.pdf
2. Nowhere to Turn: How the Individual Health Insurance Market Fails Women, National Women’s Law Center (September 2008) The Center’s landmark 2008 report explored the harsh realities of the individual health insurance market and how this system fails women.
http://nwlc.org/reformmatters/.....rn-WEB.pdf
This whole bill is about CONTROL. Control of what type of insurance we can buy, how much we have to buy, what is covered and what by law CANNOT be covered. There was a time when we could pay for a doctors visit with a chicken from the farm. Of course Drs. may need more payment than a chicken nowadays, but the principal remains. No one but myself and my Doctor should determine what I need. The reform bill was suppose to address this by keeping insurance companies from controlling treatment (and payment) and affordability. Looks like neither of these issues will be addressed.
The health insurance companies have played a major role in our current healthcare crisis. They make huge profits and their CEOs make millions, while the rest of us are denied care.
HERE’S WHERE YOUR HEALTHCARE DOLLARS GO:
ANNUAL COMPENSATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY EXECUTIVES (2006 and 2007 figures):
• Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
• H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
• David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
• Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
• Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
• Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
• Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
• Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
• William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
• Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
• James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
• Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
• Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
• Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
This executive compensation could be used to provide quality healthcare for thousands of Americans! We need to get the insurance companies out of healthcare.
Women, and all Americans, need a NON-profit, single payer healthcare system that provides healthcare for all.
The FIRST item I noticed on the list of CEO’s is there is only 1 female. Probably very few who sit of the boards too.
As for single payor – maybe, maybe not. I am not convinced yet. If the current reform bill (with the public option) is any indicator of what a single payor (governement run) program will or will not cover – maybe this whole abortion issue is a wake up call for those wanting single payor? Women’s health has become a negotiable issue with our elected officials. Honestly, everyone touts keeping the health insurance industry out of the Dr’s office – maybe we better include congress with that as well!
FYI Diane DeGette, congresswoman from my district in Colorado indicated that she will not vote for a bill that excludes abortion. I e-mailed her to encourage her to stand her ground. You know she has to be getting pestered from all the other Democrats who want to “make history” by getting anything passed. Encourage those who are against this bill for the sake of protecting our rights by e-mailing and calling them. Tell them to stand their ground. Maybe let them know that women’s votes for Dems is not a “given” anymore.
Single-payer healthcare is NOT government-run healthcare.
Single-payer healthcare is NOT socialized medicine.
See an excellent article, “The Truth About Health Care Reform,” here: http://www.everydaycitizen.com.....ng_mu.html
Quoting from the article:
“By changing the way that health care is paid for, single payer health care can eradicate the disparities and inequalities while simultaneously improving quality of care for everyone. This increase in quality will also cost less.”
Please also read the article “Health Reform for Beginners: The Difference Between Socialized Medicine, Single-Payer Health Care, and What We’ll Be Getting” http://voices.washingtonpost.c....._th_1.html
Quoted from the article:
“Socialized medicine is a system in which the government owns the means of providing medicine. Britain is an example of socialized system, as, in America, is the Veterans Health Administration.
“In a socialized system, the government employs the doctors and nurses, builds and owns the hospitals, and bargains for and purchases the technology. I have literally never heard a proposal for converting America to a socialized system of medicine. And I know a lot of liberals.
“SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE IS NOT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. It’s a system in which one institution purchases all, or in reality, most, of the care. But the payer does not own the doctors or the hospitals or the nurses or the MRI scanners. Medicare is an example of a mostly single-payer system, as is France. Both of these systems have private insurers to choose from, but the government is the dominant purchaser. . . . The term refers to market share, not federal control.”
Single-payer healthcare is NOT government-run healthcare.
Single-payer healthcare is NOT socialized medicine.
See an excellent article, “The Truth About Health Care Reform,” here: http://www.everydaycitizen.com.....ng_mu.html
Quoting from the article:
“By changing the way that health care is paid for, single payer health care can eradicate the disparities and inequalities while simultaneously improving quality of care for everyone. This increase in quality will also cost less.”
Please also read the article “Health Reform for Beginners: The Difference Between Socialized Medicine, Single-Payer Health Care, and What We’ll Be Getting” http://voices.washingtonpost.c....._th_1.html
Quoted from the article:
“Socialized medicine is a system in which the government owns the means of providing medicine. Britain is an example of socialized system, as, in America, is the Veterans Health Administration.
“In a socialized system, the government employs the doctors and nurses, builds and owns the hospitals, and bargains for and purchases the technology. I have literally never heard a proposal for converting America to a socialized system of medicine. And I know a lot of liberals.
“SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE IS NOT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. It’s a system in which one institution purchases all, or in reality, most, of the care. But the payer does not own the doctors or the hospitals or the nurses or the MRI scanners. Medicare is an example of a mostly single-payer system, as is France. Both of these systems have private insurers to choose from, but the government is the dominant purchaser. . . . The term refers to market share, not federal control.”
Single-payer healthcare reform is the only way to get the insurance companies out of healthcare. It’s also the only economically feasible solution, but there’s been a media black out, so not many people are aware of that. And Congress is in the pockets of the insurance companies.
Single payer healthcare reform is the only ethical and financial solution.
1. Medicare for All would save the US $350 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR
See the study from the New England Journal of Medicine here: http://www.pnhp.org/publications/nejmadmin.pdf
2. Another study shows SINGLE-PAYER WOULD BE MAJOR STIMULUS FOR THE US ECONOMY:
** 2.6 Million New Jobs,
** $317 Billion in Business Revenue,
** $100 Billion in Wages, and
** $44 Billion New Tax Revenues
Here’s the study: http://www.calnurses.org/resea.....y_2009.pdf
How to pay for single payer reform: HR676 – public financing and private delivery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxi7DnCH3zk
Congress and the public need to see accurate numbers. The Single Payer plans must be scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Then we’ll all know the truth.
(meant to post this here)
Janis keeps bringing up a crucial point. Men think they can bear down and oppress women without harming themselves. The wage gap between men and women has actually increased, and with women’s freedom to divorce men, women are more of the economy than they have ever been. This is a perilous time. The healthcare bill covers all of the needs of men, and their special needs such as viagra, but fails to cover basic human needs such as prenatal care. Do men just live in this fantasy world that they can be totally unlivable with, inhuman, porn addicted assholes, and force women into small salaries, AND keep a steady economy? Are they that stupid. Honestly? We are really moving forward and removing the stigma of discussing sexism; making it a part of the dialogue; ending the silence. However, I think it may be too late for our country, and the future of freedom.
Obama’s idea to insure all Americans is to force people to buy health insurance plans and women to buy health insurance plans that do not cover their most basic needs, and to buy this insurance for their dependents until they are 27, while living on meager wages. This is criminalizing poverty. Is Obama’s plan to end homelessness and hunger to mandate that people buy houses?
Healthcare should be free for women. Make men pay taxes until fair LIVING wages are available to all women.
The more I read about this bill, free unlimited viagra for men, no birth control for impoverished women caring for most of the future generations..it’s starting to sound like a written version of the average American male dominance fantasy..it really sounds more like an American rape-bill
“Do men just live in this fantasy world that they can be totally unlivable with, inhuman, porn addicted assholes, and force women into small salaries, AND keep a steady economy? Are they that stupid. Honestly?”
They sure are. You just described the human condition from one million BC until about 1940.
They sure do think they can do that, and they are willing to pay the price. Like the radical Muslim governments in the middle east who are perfectly happy to live in a Godly hellhole because they believe it’s better than a secular civilization.
Men hate women so much (yes, they really do) that living in a giant pile of shit is worth it if they get to mistreat us. Offer them the choice of a society that is happy, healthy, quiet, and well-fed but has female equality, and a society that is miserable, disease-wracked, dirt-poor, and violent but where he gets to lord it over anything with a pussy, and they will choose door #2 every single time.
If any man thinks I’m wrong and being too harsh … well, prove me wrong. That’s all you have to do, and I’d love it if you did.
If any woman thinks I’m wrong … well, just push your fingers in your ears a little further.
Janis,
I am going to go lay down now. You dared to say it and the truth just breaks my heart. The only thing I would add to you comment is that many women are willing to live in shit (and fuck shit) as a trade off to claiming the harsh reality of where we are and committing to working to change it. The way I see it, we are all living in shit the only difference is some of us see and smell it and other have fingers over eyes and pinched over nose to block it. but we are still living in shit.
Breaks my heart, too — but being in denial breaks it worse.
A nd I agree about women. Denial is an attractive thing.
Brilliant
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