HEALTH CARE IMPACT ON WOMEN

Excerpts from the National Women’s Law Center's facts on why women need health care reform:

In the absence of health reform, more and more women and families will lose their health insurance, with an estimated 995,200 California residents losing coverage between 2008 and 2010.

A recent study revealed that California women aged 18-54 are paying as much as 39% more than men for identical individual health plans.

Women in California Face Unfair and Discriminatory Insurance Industry Practices

1. Insurers in California are allowed to consider gender when setting premium rates in the individual health insurance market, where people buy coverage directly from insurance companies. As a result of “gender rating,” women are often charged more than men for the exact same coverage.

2. In California, insurance companies are allowed to reject a woman’s health insurance application for a variety of reasons including her medical history or her current health status.

3. Insurers in California can also exclude coverage for certain “pre-existing” conditions; if a woman has previously had a Cesarean section, for instance, insurers may refuse to pay for future C-sections or reject her application altogether.

4. In California, where nearly a third of all births were by C-section in 2006, tens of thousands of women could face coverage exclusions or rejections because of this discriminatory practice.


Women in California Have More Trouble Affording Necessary Health Care

1. Women are generally poorer than men, and in California earn just 84 cents for every dollar men earn.

2. Women also use the health care system more, in part due to their reproductive health needs.

3. Because they are poorer and use more care, women spend a greater share of their income on their health needs. Women are more likely than men to struggle with medical bills or debt, and to report cost-related problems with accessing health care.

4. For instance, 17% of women in California report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.

5. Women without coverage are especially likely to experience cost-related barriers to care. In 2007, more than one in five women in California was uninsured.

6. Even women with health insurance report problems affording health care. Unaffordable cost-sharing requirements, annual limits on covered services, or health plan limits on lifetime expenditures have a disproportionate impact on women. They are more likely than men to be underinsured, meaning they have coverage that leaves their financial and physical health at risk.