Women Charged More for Identical Health Insurance

A bunch of conscientious readers have sent us the link to a really depressing article in today’s New York Times about economic differentials for women and men when it comes to health insurance costs–and, no, not just because we’re the ones that bear the babies. It reads, “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.”
Seriously? Is our health care system so broken that when women actually use it, it discriminates against them? This is deeply troubling. Health care is a human right. Every woman in this country deserves it, and deserves to be charged the same as her male peer for it. And if we’re looking at it from a strictly economic stand point, preventative care of the type that these insurers claim women do more of actually saves them money over the long run!
Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, has it right: “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.”
One more reason to vote people. Check out the candidates’ differing health insurance plans: Obama and McCain.

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