Womenstake

Let's talk turkey

Over the holiday, as your family gathers around the table, be prepared to talk about what women have at stake in health care reform. Got a moment between the turkey and the football game? Tell our leaders to protect women’s reproductive health services by signing our petition.
	MYTH: We don’t need health care reform. This country has a great health care system and there’s nothing wrong with it. FACT: The United States might have some of the best doctors in the world, but Americans pay more for health care than people in any other industrialized country. And we get less for our money. Even worse, we have millions of uninsured people who cannot access health care. Eighteen percent of women in the U.S. do not have health insurance. Women who do have insurance are more likely than men to have insufficient coverage that leaves them vulnerable to financial risk and unmet health needs. More than half of all women — 52% — have had trouble getting health care due to cost, compared to 39% of men.
	MYTH: Our economy is slowly recovering. We can’t afford health care reform. FACT: The House bill that recently passed is projected to save us money — about $104 billion over 10 years. Health care reform is also expected to increase the number of insured Americans and help make health insurance more affordable. What we can’t afford is doing nothing. We are spending $2 trillion per year now on health care. And if health care costs continue to rise, at least half of U.S. households will spend more than 45% of their income on insurance by 2016.
	MYTH: Women aren’t charged more than men for health insurance. We already have laws against that. FACT: Actually, when women buy health coverage directly from insurance companies, they can be charged more than men. Female non-smokers are often charged more than men who smoke. And businesses that have a large number of female employees are charged more for insurance than other businesses. Current health care reform legislation would end this discriminatory practice.
Women need comprehensive health care reform, including access to abortion care and other reproductive health services. Women need health care reform that meets their needs, including comprehensive reproductive health services that cover abortion care. Together, we can win the fight to keep the House-passed anti-choice Stupak-Pitts amendment, which will cause millions of women to lose the abortion coverage they now have, out of the final Senate bill and then finally pass good health care reform legislation.
Done with catching up Uncle Joe and Grandma Betty about your life? Take a moment to sign our petition and tell your leaders that women need health care reform that works for us, including reproductive health services that covers abortion care.

Weekly Round-Up

by Andrea Maruniak, Program Assistant, 
National Women's Law Center 

Choices Campus Blog discussed the ways in which the U.S. lags behind other countries in implementing family-friendly work policies, such as paid sick leave, paid paternal leave and breastfeeding breaks.

Hot on the heels of the new mammogram guidelines, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released new recommendations for cervical cancer tests, reported The New York Times.

Jezebel examined college rape prevention programs and the ways in which many of these programs have shifted the focus from women to men.

RH Reality Check explored a case in which a jailed pregnant woman was denied critical care.

A group of women ski jumpers sued the organizers of the Vancouver Olympics after they were denied the right to compete in the games. Their suit failed because, according to the British Columbia Appeal Court, the organizers didn’t have the power to allow the women’s competition. (Via Feministing.)

NWLC in the News

by Andrea Maruniak, Communications Program Assistant,
National Women's Law Center

The Colorado Independent, November 17, 2009
Colorado Health Insurance Lobby Vows to Fight Mandatory Maternity Coverage

Women's eNews, November 15, 2009
Jobless Benefits Will Now Reach More Women

The New York Times, November 14, 2009
In Congress, a Predicament for Abortion Supporters

NPR, November 10, 2009
Democrats Face Backlash Over House Abortion Limits

ClickZ, November 10, 2009
Healthcare Reform Advertisers Warming Up Big Guns

U.S. News & World Report, November 9, 2009
Abortion Coverage Severely Restricted in House Health Reform Bill

Tell Your Senators that You Need It All

by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, 
National Women's Law Center

Why should women have to make a trade-off between our ability to get abortion coverage and trying to eliminate other unfair and discriminatory insurance practices against women in health reform?

We shouldn’t.

Tell your Senators that you need it all — health care reform that works for women includes comprehensive reproductive health care that covers abortion care.

The passage of the House health care reform bill brought us one step closer to health reform that works for women by ending higher premiums based on gender, denials by insurance companies for having had a Cesarean section or suffered domestic abuse under the guise that these were “pre-existing conditions,” and providing other major protections for women.

But anti-choice Members of Congress dealt a huge blow to women’s reproductive health coverage at the last minute by including the anti-choice Stupak-Pitts amendment in health care legislation. If this amendment becomes law, it will, in effect, prohibit women from using their own personal, private funds to purchase an insurance plan that includes abortion coverage in the new health insurance exchanges—taking away essential coverage that most insurance plans provide today.

Now, the Senate is about to take up health reform legislation. We need to make sure that they know that women demand it all because women need it all. Tell your Senators that we need health reform that works for women now, including comprehensive reproductive health care that covers abortion care.

Putting Women Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Accept a System That Insures More People, Lose Your Reproductive Rights

by Micole Allekotte, Health Fellow, 
National Women's Law Center 

Ezra Klein recently posted to his blog about how the Stupak amendment unfairly limits low- and middle-income women’s access to insurance plans that cover abortion. 

The House health reform bill creates an insurance exchange where people who receive government subsidies will go to choose among insurance plans. The Stupak amendment forbids plans that are offered to people who receive subsidies from covering abortion. This means that people receiving subsidies will not be able to buy a comprehensive insurance plan that covers abortion, even if the abortion coverage would have been paid for using the personal premium dollars and not the subsidies (which was the compromise reached before the Stupak amendment). Because most people will receive subsidies, insurance plans on the exchange will also be unlikely to offer a separate comprehensive plan that covers abortion for non-subsidized individuals, so even people who do not receive subsidies at all may not be able to find a plan that covers abortion on the exchange. 

Mr. Klein’s post reminded me of three thoughts:

1) Low income women already get no respect when it comes to being allowed to make reproductive decisions. All women should have the right to make whatever decision is best for themselves and their families. But Medicaid doesn’t cover abortions because of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion except in extremely narrow exceptions. Only 17 states use their own funds to cover all medically necessary abortions for women on Medicaid. Health reform makes many more women eligible for Medicaid, which means more women will have health insurance, but at the expense of the government taking the power to make personal decisions away from women.

Weekly Round-Up

by Katherine Beauchemin, Communication Intern, 
National Women's Law Center 

The American Prospect took a look at Title IX through the eyes of a father as he witnessed the positive impact of Little League baseball on his daughter.

According to a Washington Post report, a panel of independent experts concluded, “Sex-education programs that encourage teens to delay sexual activity and teach them about contraception cut risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and lower the chances of getting the AIDS virus and other infections.”

The Centers for Disease Control eliminated the requirement that immigrant women and girls receive the HPV vaccine, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and other organizations announced. 

In an attempt to curb teen pregnancies and encourage girls to attend college, a group in North Carolina is paying girls who enroll in college and don’t become pregnant, Opposing Views reported. 

Economists at MIT conducted a national study which links girls’ school environment with success in mathematics, reported MIT News.

Chally posted links to a collection of excellent feminist carnivals on Feministe. 

Abortion Coverage Matters: The High-Stakes in the Fight Over the Stupak Amendment

by Kelli Garcia, Fellow,
National Women's Law Center

Some proponents of health-care reform are urging those who support abortion rights to accept the restrictions imposed by the Stupak Amendment in the name of the “greater good.” What is health insurance coverage for abortion compared to extending coverage to 35 million Americans, they ask? According to Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., the whole debate is a bunch of fuss over nothing much. He cites a 2001 study by the Guttmacher Institute that found that only 13 percent of abortions in 2001 were billed directly to providers as support for the notion that the Stupak Amendment will have little real impact on women. Of course, as the Guttmmacher Institute notes, this number is misleading for two primary reasons.

First, the study looked at all women who obtained abortions in 2001, including women on Medicaid and those who were uninsured. Obviously, women who are uninsured will not have abortion coverage and current law restricts federal funding for abortion services for Medicaid recipients (although some states do use their own funds to pay for abortion coverage). According to the Guttmacher Institute, had they looked only at women with private insurance, the percentage of abortions billed to insurance companies would be “substantially higher”.

Second, the study did not include women who obtained reimbursement from their insurance company directly, which is relatively common, because many abortion providers are not part of private insurance networks. The Gutmmacher Institute also found that in 2002, 87 percent of typical employer-based insurance policies covered medically necessary or appropriate abortions. Notably, “the 87 percent of plans that covered abortions did not include those plans that offered abortion coverage only in very limited circumstances, such as rape and incest, or to protect the woman’s life.”

Abortion and Health Care Reform: How The House Bill Forces Women to Accept Less Coverage Than They Already Have

by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, 
National Women's Law Center 

Last week it seemed that a compromise had been reached between abortion rights supporters and opponents. The compromise was based on the idea that health reform is so important that no one would try to use a single controversial issue as an excuse to bring the whole thing down. So, language was drafted that would sustain the status quo on abortion; no federal funding, but people could still use their own money to buy insurance that would cover them. But just hours before the final vote on the House reform bill, anti-abortion Democrats threatened that unless they got new restrictions on abortion rights they would vote against health reform. Here’s the breakdown:

The compromise: Under the language currently in the Senate Finance Committee’s bill and formerly in the House bill, no federal funding would be used for abortions. Under this provision, called the Capps Amendment, all insurance plans in the exchange would have to keep the money from private premiums and the money from government subsidies separate. Only money from private premiums would be allowed to pay for abortions covered under the plans. This is how current law on abortion works; for example, under Medicaid, federal funds are not allowed to be used for abortions, but some states provide funding by separating their state funds from the federal funds. Republican Senator Collins said that the compromise provision “did a good job of putting up a firewall that would prevent federal funds from being used to finance abortions." Under the compromise, at least one plan in the exchange would cover abortion services and at least one plan would not cover abortions services, giving every American the option of what type of plan she would like to purchase while ensuring that no federal funding would be used to cover abortions.

Abortion in health reform - how did your Representative vote?

by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, 
National Women's Law Center 

Over the weekend, men got further than ever in their journey toward affordable, accessible, and comprehensive health care.

Women? Not so much.

Anti-choice Members of Congress rolled back the clock on coverage of abortion services that millions of women currently have.  

Find out how your Representative voted – and tell them we won’t tolerate women’s rights being taken away.

On Saturday, the House of Representatives passed a major health care reform bill, bringing us one step closer to ending higher premiums based on gender, denials by insurance companies for having had a Caesarean section or suffered domestic abuse under the guise that these were “pre-existing conditions,” and other major protections for women.

But anti-choice forces used this major advance to subvert essential reproductive health care for women. An amendment, which passed at the last minute, takes away women's ability to purchase coverage for abortion care with their own funds in the health insurance exchanges and public plan that the legislation created. 

Where did your Representative stand? Find out – and thank those who stood up for women. And tell the others you're deeply disappointed by their votes.

The Senate takes up health care legislation next. We will not rest until women have health care reform that meets their essential needs, including their reproductive health care needs.

A Major Advancement in Health Care Reform - Next Step Must Meet Women's Reproductive Health Care Needs

Last night, the House voted 220 to 215 to pass the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R.3962).

The following is a statement by Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women's Law Center (NWLC):

"NWLC is both gratified that the House passed this vitally important reform for women and their families, and outraged that anti-choice forces would use this major advance to subvert essential health care for women by taking away women's ability to purchase coverage for abortion care with their own funds in the health insurance exchanges.

"The NWLC will not rest until women have health care reform that meets their essential needs, including their reproductive health care needs. The Center calls on the Administration and the leadership in the House and the Senate to secure that result in the Senate and in Conference. Any other outcome is both dangerous to women's health and unacceptable."