Health Reform in Our Own Backyard

by Lisa Codispoti, Senior Advisor
and Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst
National Women’s Law Center

This post is part of a weekly series on Women and Health Reform.

Like most things, living in Washington D.C. does have its drawbacks. But lately, there are a lot of things to cheer about in our fair city – a brand spanking new baseball stadium, gorgeous cherry blossoms all around, and a just-introduced health reform proposal for universal coverage.

The Healthy DC Act sets a goal of universal health coverage for District residents by 2010. After a quick analysis of the proposal, here are some early thoughts:

• We love that Healthy DC explicitly states the need to expand health coverage that is affordable, accessible, and comprehensive;
• It’s also great that the new program would offer broad coverage to uninsured residents, with many of the benefits that women need to stay healthy like preventive care, prescription drugs, maternity care, and mental health services;

• More great news – the legislation includes some important provisions that protect people who buy their coverage on the individual insurance market (i.e. not through an employer). Specifically, health insurers would no longer be able to deny someone coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition and would be prohibited from charging people more based on gender, age, or health condition.
• But we do have a few questions about the plan’s individual mandate, which would require all DC residents to get health insurance or risk paying a fine. Without the right protections in place, individual mandates could unfairly penalize some families or encourage residents to buy inadequate “bare-bones” insurance products just to meet the requirement; and,
• We also worry about the working uninsured that currently have offers of employer-sponsored insurance that are unaffordable or inadequate for their needs. Unless this group can get a special waiver from the mayor, they could be stuck between a rock and a hard place - they would be ineligible for the new insurance program but risk a penalty for not complying with the mandate.

There is a lot to be excited about in the Healthy DC Act, and moving toward affordable, accessible comprehensive health coverage will go a long way to improving the health status of District women — according to the NWLC women’s health report card, we sure are ripe for improvement. We’ll be watching the DC City Council’s next steps closely, and hoping that this goal can become a reality right here in our own backyard.