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In general, insurers say, they charge women more than men of the same age because claims experience shows that women use more health care services. They are more likely to visit doctors, to get regular checkups, to take prescription medications and to have certain chronic illnesses.
Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, an advocacy group that has examined hundreds of individual policies, said: “The wide variation in premiums could not possibly be justified by actuarial principles. We should not tolerate women having to pay more for health insurance, just as we do not tolerate the practice of using race as a factor in setting rates.”
Without substantial changes in the individual market, Ms. Greenberger said, tax credits for the purchase of insurance will be worth less to women because they face higher premiums.
”Women Buying Health Policies Pay a Penalty - NYTimes.com
To summarize: Because women actually use the health care system more than men, we are penalized. The article also points out that the same disparity does not exist for employer-based coverage because of civil rights laws prohibiting sex discrimination. And just a reminder: McCain’s proposed health plan would push more people into the individual market. (via julyshewillfly)
Here’s what I don’t get: wouldn’t we cost less in the long run to insure because we bother to go to the doctor and stay healthy or is that crazy talk? Also, this:
Mila Kofman, the insurance superintendent in Maine, said: “There’s a strong public policy reason to prohibit gender-based rates. Only women can bear children. There’s an expense to that. But having babies benefits communities and society as a whole. Women should not have to bear the entire expense.”
Okay, so it’s a given that all us ladies are dirty, dirty whores for even having sex in the first place to get us pregnant, but why oh why must people sit there and tell me just what they want me to do with my body: have a baby, not an abortion and then not give me options to pay for the exorbitant costs of childbirth and maternity care? You can sit there and bitch all day that I should take responsibility for my actions and shouldn’t have sex if I can’t afford a baby or some other bullshit, but who really can pay the cost of having a child completely out of pocket? And that’s just doctors’ and hospitals’ fees. So my hypothetical insurance company (since I’m currently uninsured) won’t cover me for birth control to prevent a pregnancy and then won’t cover my pregnancy to the full-extent. I have anger in my heart.
