I Am Not A Pre-Existing Condition!

By: Brook

I was browsing and came across change.org 's posting on the latest drama in the unfolding reforms on the health care bill. Jen Nedeau of change.org's perfect post on the matter:

We've heard about how being a victim of domestic violence, being pregnant or having had a previous c-section can prevent a woman from qualifying for private insurance. Despite how shocking this all is, it becomes really problematic if a public option is not included in the health care reform package when and if it is ever passed.

Today, the National Women's Law Center is trying to raise awareness about these issues and more by announcing a new public awareness campaign called "Being a Woman is Not a Pre-Existing Condition." The goal of the national campaign is to educate women about the disparities they face in health care coverage and rally them to contact their Members of Congress to demand that Congress pass health reform legislation that works for women.

play the video!

The Center also released a new report, Still Nowhere to Turn: Insurance Companies Treat Women Like a Pre-Existing Condition, which provides new data about the inequities that women face in health insurance such as:

• The extent of gender rating, in which insurance companies charge women more than men for the same coverage, worsened since the Center issued its landmark Nowhere to Turn report in 2008; 93% of the best-selling plans in the individual insurance market practice gender rating in 2009 compared to 83% in 2008.

• Gender rating also occurs in the group market; insurance companies in most states are allowed to charge a business more for coverage if it employs women. Some states have protections against this discriminatory practice, but these are typically limited to small groups - such as businesses with 50 employees or less. Moderate-sized and larger businesses are subject to gender rating in all states except Montana.

• The gender gap for younger women has grown significantly in the last year; in 2009, 25-year-old women are charged as much as 84% more than men for individual health plans, compared to as much as 45% in 2008.

• To further examine the arbitrary nature of the current system, NWLC looked at premiums charged 40-year-old female non-smokers versus 40-year-old male smokers. In most states, it often costs more to be a woman than to be a male smoker; more than 60% of best-selling plans charged 40-year-old female non-smokers more than 40-year-old male smokers.

Those who want to join the campaign can visit the website to learn about the issues and upcoming events, share the facts with their own networks via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and post about the issue on their blogs and websites. They also can send a message to their elected officials in Congress to tell them that health care reform must meet the needs of women and their families.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Visit the website. Sign the petition.

Additionally, I received a letter from N.O.W. this morning stating that the health care bill presented is working towards eliminating safe and affordable access to abortion services for women nationwide.

NOW Opposes Health Care Bill That Strips Millions of Women of Abortion Access
Says Bill Obliterates Women's Fundamental Right to Choose

Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill

The House of Representatives has dealt the worst blow to women's fundamental right to self-determination in order to buy a few votes for reform of the profit-driven health insurance industry. We must protect the rights we fought for in Roe v. Wade. We cannot and will not support a health care bill that strips millions of women of their existing access to abortion.

Birth control and abortion are integral aspects of women's health care needs. Health care reform should not be a vehicle to obliterate a woman's fundamental right to choose.

The Stupak Amendment goes far beyond the abusive Hyde Amendment, which has denied federal funding of abortion since 1976. The Stupak Amendment, if incorporated into the final version of health insurance reform legislation, will:

• Prevent women receiving tax subsidies from using their own money to purchase private insurance that covers abortion;
• Prevent women participating in the public health insurance exchange, administered by private insurance companies, from using 100 percent of their own money to purchase private insurance that covers abortion;
• Prevent low-income women from accessing abortion entirely, in many cases.

NOW calls on the Senate to pass a health care bill that respects women's constitutionally protected right to abortion and calls on President Obama to refuse to sign any health care bill that restricts women's access to affordable, quality reproductive health care.

We truly need more gender sensitive minds in Congress, in public policy/legislation, to be our advocates and social 'watchdogs'; thankfully, there are great change makers: read more here. Look out world, I will finally have my Bachelors in hand in about two months....