Women’s Access to Health Care

1. Women’s Access to Health Care Dr. Claudia M. Fegan, MD, CHCQM, FACP Executive Medical Office of the Cook County Health & Hospital System PNHP Past-President and Board Member How the fight for national health insurance is a feminist issue

2. Women & health insurance costs • Women utilize more health care services than men • Women typically have lower incomes • Women are more likely to have part-time employment that does not provide benefits • Women are twice as likely to depend on a partner for health insurance, making things especially difficult when widowed or divorced (a perverse incentive to say longer in bad relationships) • Women on average live longer and are more likely to have chronic illnesses Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Women’s Health Survey May 2011

4. Women & health insurance coverage • 1 out of 5 women are uninsured • Latina women are least likely to be insured • Texas has the highest number of uninsured women in the country • Not all women who live under the federal poverty line qualify for Medicaid & already make up 2/3 of the Medicaid population • Women on Medicare on average are more likely to live in poverty and alone • States can enact laws to ban coverage for abortions under the ACA Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Women’s Health Survey May 2011

7. Women & care under the ACA • Still ties insurance to marriage and/or employment status • Insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion leave gaps in coverage, due to poor policies, high deductibles and co-pays (leaving most lower middle class women still uninsured) • States can still ban private insurers from covering abortion • Large-group employers are still permitted to use gender-rating (only prohibited for small groups & individual policies) • Age-rating restricted but not prohibited Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Women’s Health Survey May 2011

8. Key Features of Single Payer • Universal, comprehensive coverage • No out-of-pocket payments • A single insurance plan in each region, administered by a public or quasi-public agency • Global operating budgets for hospitals, nursing homes, allowed group and staff model HMOs & other providers w/ separate allocation of capital funds • Free choice of providers • Public accountability, not corporate dictates • Ban on investor-owned, for-profti health care providers • Protections of the rights of health care and insurance workers From the American Journal of Public Health, January 2003, Vol 93, No. 1

9. International health spending as % of GDP Source: OECD 2011

10. Cosponsors of HR 676 in earlier congresses but not yet in the 113th Maloney, Carolyn B. NY 12th Markey, Edward J. MA 5th Meeks, Gregory W. NY 5th Moran, James P. VA 8th Napolitano, Grace F. CA 32nd Pastor, Ed AZ 7th Payne, Donald M., Jr. NJ 10th Polis, Jared CO 2nd Rahall, Nick J., II WV 3rd Ryan, Tim OH 13th Sánchez, Linda T. CA 38th Sanchez, Loretta CA 46th Scott, David GA 13th Serrano, José E. NY 15th Thompson, Bennie G. MS 2nd Tierney, John F. MA 6th Velázquez, Nydia M. NY 7th Visclosky, Peter J. IN 1st Waters, Maxine CA 43rd Waxman, Henry A. CA 33rd Bass, Karen CA 37th Becerra, Xavier CA 34th Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. GA 2nd Brady, Robert A. PA 1st Brown, Corrine FL 5th Butterfield, G. K. NC 1st Capuano, Michael E. MA 7th Carson, André IN 7th Cleaver, Emanuel MO 5th Clyburn, James E. SC 6th Faleomavaega, Eni F. H. AS Delegate Fattah, Chaka PA 2nd Fudge, Marcia L. OH 11th Hahn, Janice CA 44th Jackson Lee, Sheila TX 18th Kaptur, Marcy OH 9th Loebsack, David IA 2nd Lowey, Nita M. NY 17th Luján, Ben Ray NM 3rd Lynch, Stephen F. MA 8th As of June 26, 2013

11. Other “Politically Infeasible” Movements Abolition of Human Slavery (1860s) Women’s Suffrage Movement (1840-1920) Civil Rights Act (1964)