Insuring Pregnancy Becomes Cost to the Nation

RedTracker| House Speakers Nancy Pelosi and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski tell women loudly and clearly that being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition.

One of the grossest gender-based inequalities has existed at a time when C-section births are at an all-time high. Nearly one-third of American births, having had a C-section delivery will no longer be a pre-existing condition.

While Catholic bishops and the Stupak crowd move to ‘control’ further women’s bodies by insisting that women not have abortions, maternity coverage — forget abortion insurance —  wasn’t considered ‘an essential health benefit’ to women by the health care industry.

Republican men talk about the challenges of small business insurance, without mentioning the disproproportionately large numbers of women who own and work in small businesses.

The gender imbalance in insurance costs — largely eliminated in the new health care legislation — have dramatically hindered women’s ability to offer health care to other women and to all employees.

The stock answer from insurers is that women go to the doctor more often than men. Pregnancy is a key reason.

This reality has justified gender-based assessments in which same-age nonsmoking women paid more than male smokers. Women came to subsidize men, resulting in health care premiums where women pay 4 to 48 percent more for health care coverage than men.via NYTimes

Listening to the pundits, you might think men and women share alike in the challenges of health care legislation. The fact is they don’t. So part of the Republican-led repeal process, part of their statements that ‘we’ can’t afford the changes should highlight the reality that in fixing gross gender inequities in America’s health care system, perhaps men will see some new charges.

In most European countries, providing equitable, affordable health care to women is not an unfortunate national liability that men must deal with.  Just factor this consideration into your thinking when the Republican men explain why the nation can’t afford to insure its women. Read on at NYTimes.