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Being a Woman is Not a Pre-Existing Condition

Posted by: Lydia Gottesfeld on Oct 21, 2009

Last week, Senator Barbara Mikulski presided over a Senate Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing entitled "What Women Want: Equal Benefits for Equal Premiums."

All across the country, women are charged more for insurance than their male counterparts. In all but 12 states, insurance companies can charge more for women's coverage than for men's. According to a National Women's Law Center study, insurers who use gender-rating can charge 40-year-old women anywhere from 4%-48% more than they charge men the same age. The vast majority of insurance plans offered in the individual market do not cover maternity care within the plan. And if women want to purchase additional maternity coverage, it can cost thousands more each month.

The most compelling arguments at the hearing came from witnesses who shared their personal stories of gender discrimination by insurers. One was Peggy Robertson.

Peggy and her husband were in the market to buy a new insurance plan because their current plan was getting too expensive. But when she applied for a plan with Colorado's Golden Rule, she was flat out denied coverage due to a "pre-existing condition" she did not event know she had. Peggy, in perfect health, discovered that she was denied due to the cesarean section she had had to deliver her first son. Peggy said:

I called Golden Rule and they said that if I would get sterilized, they would then be able to offer insurance to me.... After filing a complaint, I discovered Golden Rule is allowed to discriminate against women who have had a c-section. There was nothing I could do.

Peggy's experience, having Golden Rule deny her a policy due to her c-section, is shocking and disturbing. But it's legal in all but 5 states.

Women constantly find themselves in a bind when it comes to health insurance. As the child bearers, they are charged more for insurance, and yet also must take on the main responsibility for providing care in the family. This restricts their ability to work jobs that would provide good coverage. Women generally have lower incomes, tend to work part time, and often take responsibility for the family's health needs. Yet women have been finding it harder and harder to find affordable coverage with the services they need-services such as maternity care.

It's time we put an end to this discrimination and make sure all women have access to affordable coverage of the comprehensive services they need. All the health reform proposals being considered in Congress will end these practices.

Visit http://awomanisnotapreexistingcondition.com/ for more.