Women's Health Advocates Use Health Reform To Tackle Gender Biases In Coverage

Women's health organizations and advocates are drawing attention to several lesser-known provisions in health reform legislation that would improve insurance coverage and health care for women, USA Today reports. Although the congressional debate over abortion coverage has garnered the most media attention among women's health issues in the reform debate, advocates say that provisions such as prohibiting insurance companies from charging women more than men for the same policies or requiring companies to offer maternity coverage in basic plans would "affect far more women, who have received inadequate care and coverage for too long," USA Today reports. As health reform bills near the final stages, advocates are working to ensure that women's health provisions are preserved as lawmakers look to trim the legislation's cost.

According to USA Today, the National Women's Law Center reports that 40 states and Washington, D.C., allow so-called "gender rating," in which insurance companies charge women more than men for the same individual policies or charge businesses with mostly female workers higher group rates. About 4.7 million women purchased individual insurance in states with this pricing practice in 2008, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, insurance companies currently can offer policies that exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions, including past caesarean sections, or deny maternity coverage if a woman is pregnant when she applies for a policy. Insurance companies can deny coverage to survivors of domestic violence in eight states and Washington, D.C.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she would like the final health reform bill to include provisions requiring minimum benefits packages offered by health plans to include coverage for preventive cancer screenings for women, including mammograms and Pap tests. "When it comes to health insurance, women are discriminated against," Mikulski said, adding, "We pay more and we get less, and often we are denied care." Robert Zirkelbach of America's Health Insurance Plans said the insurance industry supports eliminating gender rating and the practice of denying coverage to domestic violence survivors. According to Zirkelbach, most plans already cover maternity care, and there is a "good chance" that basic benefits packages will include such coverage.

Some Republicans, including Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), have been fighting the inclusion of maternity coverage in a basic benefits package. Kyl drew attention for his position on the issue last week in an exchange with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who supports the coverage. Kyl said in a hearing, "I don't need maternity care and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive." Stabenow replied, "I think your mom probably did." According to USA Today, an online video of the senators' comments has drawn about 150,000 views on YouTube (Hall, USA Today, 10/5).


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