Why Health Care Reform Is a Women's Issue

Published July 03, 2009 @ 11:17AM PT

We all know stories of women who have gone through hell just to get medical care:

A co-worker who spent hours on the phone pleading with the insurance company to cover a life-saving procedure

A friend with diabetes who had to choose between buying groceries for her kids or filling her insulin prescription

A cousin who paid through the nose for private insurance because her job didn't offer insurance and she has a very rare genetic disorder

A neighbor who stayed in a bad relationship because her husband's job offered good health insurance

These are all women I know. They could be women you know. Women seem to bear the brunt of the health care crisis in this country. According to the Kaiser Foundation, there are approximately 17 million women who are uninsured. That's nearly 1 in 5 adult women who have no health insurance. Men contribute to nearly two-thirds (63%) of the uninsured over all.

The good news is that most women do have health insurance.

64% have employer-based coverage

10% are on Medicaid.

6% have private policies

3% are enrolled in other government programs (i.e., military)

The bad news is that women are much more likely than men to be covered as a dependent on a spouse's employer-sponsored health insurance. (This may change as the "he-cession" continues.) Twenty-five percent of women (23.7 million) are covered as dependents. This makes them more vulnerable to losing their insurance if their spouse loses his job or the employer drops family coverage. They are also more likely to lose their insurance if they are divorced or widowed. (I know one woman who divorced her husband of 40 years when she was 62 years old. Since she wasn't eligible for Medicare yet, she had to negotiate for three years of health insurance in the divorce settlement.)

Only 39% of women (37 million) have their own job-based insurance. These are the women the system is supposedly "working" for but health care costs are rising every day whether you have insurance or not. Every woman deserves quality, affordable health insurance.

Health care reform is a woman's issue.

It's going to be a long, hot summer in Washington as Congress tries to churn out some sort of health care reform legislation. By my count, there are at least five different proposals on the table and honestly, it's starting to look like there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Things are getting complicated, messy and expensive. Some have even suggested health care reform is too hard to do, at least right now. (Yes, I'm talking to you, Diane Feinstein.)

But health care reform can't wait, because women's health care can't wait. Study after study shows that if we have health insurance we take better care of ourselves. We go to the doctor when we're sick. We fill the prescriptions that we need. We go for our annual Pap smears, mammograms and cholesterol screenings. Every woman has the right to good health, but as it stands, not every woman has the right to health insurance.

Contact your representative and your senators. Tell them what you want to see in health care reform. They want to know what you think. This is one of the most important pieces of legislation that will ever pass the United States Congress.

You have a voice. Use it.

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Comments (9)

Great post. It's beyond comprehension that we continue to have a health care system which can force people to stay in marriages because of benefits, but can also force people to get divorced just so someone with catastrophic conditions like cancer can qualify for Medicaid to get the care they need. We need change, and we need it now!

Posted by Timothy Foley on 07/03/2009 @ 03:20PM PT
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My husband's insurance, which he gets through his job, has a family plan WAY out of our budget - it's cheaper for me to buy private insurance for myself & our son separate from his. Certainly not equal, though. I'm only covered for ER visits, and my son only gets one "well-child" visit per year.

For the record, I am college-educated, and surprised to find myself struggling to have insurance.

Posted by Lisa Smolen on 07/04/2009 @ 07:15AM PT
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It sucks the way women are being treated...Not just in this area but in others as well.

Equality does and should belong to all of us.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/04/2009 @ 05:01PM PT
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You just put this is the same blog post:

"Women seem to bear the brunt of the health care crisis in this country."

"Men contribute to nearly two-thirds (63%) of the uninsured over all."

We spend $30 million a year on the office of women's health. There exists no office of men's health.

That said, can't we all just say that health care is a universal issue? Is there a need to blog about one-sided statistics?

Posted by I C on 07/07/2009 @ 04:19PM PT
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Thanks to everyone who "liked" this post or contributed a comment. I appreciate everyone's thoughts, but I'd like to address Mr. Dudley's specifically.

This post had two purposes:

1. To inspire a particular segment of the American public (women) to get involved in the health care debate by illustrating how it personally affects them

2. To emphasize why health care is so crucially important for women, period (no pun intended, but hey, if it works…)

Men are nearly 2/3 of the uninsured BUT... Compare the average 23-year-old man and woman:

A 23-year-old man who is relatively healthy can usually manage to scrape by without health insurance. They don't go to the doctor when they're sick or get basic prevention measures such as a flu shot, but stay out of trouble and a 23-year-old guy can live without health insurance.

A 23-year-old woman is of child-bearing age. A woman is almost always responsible for birth control and has to go for annual gynecological checkups. We also need prenatal care which is non-negotiable.

I agree, health care IS a universal issue. I was trying to reach out to women and help them understand why they need to fight for health care reform, why it's personal to each one of us. I would encourage you to do the same for men. I hope you do.

Regards,

Danine Spencer

Posted by Danine Spencer on 07/08/2009 @ 01:00PM PT
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@Danine

I appreciate your comments. I'm also aware that, generally speaking, it cost a bit more to ensure a woman than it does a man - perhaps for the same reasons you mentioned.

I also think it's worth noting that, even with seeming more intense health care needs, women still significantly out live men. Men, by a significant percentage, still do the most dangerous jobs in the US. Many injuries simply go ignored or endured.

Personally, I think in the end it's nearly a wash. I do respect your efforts to encourage women to embrace the issue of health care reform.

We're definitely all in this together...

Posted by I C on 07/10/2009 @ 08:24AM PT
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You said it! "We're definitely all in this together..."

I meant what I said: someone should put together a post on how men suffer w/o health insurance. A quick search for "men uninsured" seems to associate higher rates of prostate cancer with lower-income, uninsured men. Maybe change.org would publish it?

The more people who take a vested interest in health care reform, the better, IMO.

Thanks for the reply. -Danine

Posted by Danine Spencer on 07/10/2009 @ 05:35PM PT
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It's difficult to find information on Men's issues. There's no government funding for Men's health or Men's rights in general. Statistics are very hard to find and even harder to verify.

One stat we do know is that the vast majority (~73%) of successful suicides are men.We also know that men dominate the homeless population. I suspect there are a lot of preventable factors at play.

Posted by I C on 07/13/2009 @ 08:10AM PT
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Hmmm.... That's frustrating. You know, of course, that most of medical research is research on men - historically, anyways.

This has been a good discussion. Thanks.

Posted by Danine Spencer on 07/13/2009 @ 01:32PM PT
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Author

Danine Spencer is a freelance writer, with an emphasis on politics and women's rights. She has a B.S. in Computer Information Science from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and was an IT guru in a former life.