So 30 million more women will now have access to healthcare because of healthcare reform. This is a big number, and an important one. Women have been paying higher insurance premiums than men for some time, and have a difficult time even qualifying for individual insurance. Insurance carriers rate women as a higher risk than men, mainly because we use more healthcare than men. Ever try to get your father or husband to a doctor? Most individual insurance doesn’t even cover pregnancy even though it isn’t considered a pre-existing condition. Seems odd when we know that pre-natal care is one of the most important benefits of living in a western industrialized nation, and a critical factor in bearing healthy children.
The underwriting rules are changing drastically under healthcare reform. Where insurance used to rate different populations and their risk of using the healthcare system, now your premium will be based on age and gender only. From a consumer protection perspective, this spreads the cost of care across more people, but doesn’t do anything to lower costs. In the case of women, it just means we have equal access to insurance now and can’t be flipped out of our plans because we contract breast cancer, have a baby or go to the doctor. There are many other ways healthcare form is trying to protect consumers. Check out myhealthandmoney.com for more information about healthcare reform.
Hey, this is cool stuff, something worth my time. Good attempt.