Health Reform Proposals Include Several Changes To Improve Women's Coverage

Health care reform legislation under consideration in Congress "would dramatically change the rules" on how health insurance covers women, McClatchy/Contra Costa Times reports. In the current insurance market, women typically are charged more for coverage because they tend to use more preventive care. In many states, women can be denied coverage from insurers that consider pregnancy or previous caesarean sections pre-existing conditions.

McClatchy/Times reports that reform would affect women in three main areas: gender-based pricing, preventive care and financial assistance for lower-income parents. The bills in Congress would make the practice of gender-based pricing illegal; eliminate copayments and deductibles for preventive care, such as mammograms and Pap tests; require reasonable rates for maternity coverage; and provide financial assistance to people who are unable to afford health insurance, according to McClatchy/Times.

According to the National Women's Law Center, women ages 15 to 44 spend 68% more on health care than their male peers. An NWLC survey found that insurers in 47 states and Washington, D.C., that permit gender rating charged 40-year-old women between 4% and 48% more than their male counterparts. A 2009 Commonwealth Fund study found that 45% of women ages 18 to 64 were uninsured or underinsured, compared with 39% of men, based on 2007 data.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said women "are in double jeopardy" because they are "usually charged more" and also "earn less than men." She added that "even if [women] were charged the same premiums, they would pay a bigger percentage of their income" (Lightman, McClatchy/Contra Costa Times, 10/6).


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