Health Care Reform: What Women Need
Guest commentary by Sabrina Corlette, director of health policy programs for the National Partnership for Women & Families
In the halls of Congress, in the media, in the coffee shops and restaurants of Washington, D.C. -- health care reform is dominating the conversation, and for good reason. We have an enormous opportunity, and a small window of time, to make the transformational changes to our health system that we urgently need.
As the health care reform debate unfolds, the National Partnership for Women & Families is working tirelessly to remind Congress of the challenges women face in obtaining high-quality, affordable health care for ourselves and our families. It's our job to remind lawmakers what's at stake for women in health care reform. To that end, we've outlined those challenges along with our recommended policy solutions in a new Issue Brief titled Health Care Reform: What Women Need.
Unfortunately, when you look at the reality of women's lives, it's clear that our system is in many -- and perhaps most -- ways, failing us. More than many other populations, we experience high costs, inadequate coverage and poor quality care at the same time that we're required to regularly intersect with a broken system. Consider that women are often the primary health care decision-makers for their families -- choosing the providers for family members; making and sharing in treatment decisions; and coordinating and providing much of the care ourselves. Many young women lack access to the primary, preventive, and reproductive health care they need. Women in their middle years who are caring for aging parents are simultaneously developing their own chronic conditions, compounding the already overwhelming job of being a caregiver themselves.
In our Issue Brief, we provide in-depth analysis of the state of health care for women along with solutions we believe will bring meaningful change to women's lives. These solutions include:
- Affordability. Making care and health coverage more affordable in a number of ways including capping out-of-pocket costs and premiums so that no family pays more than 10 percent of their income on health coverage and allowing more families access to basic and primary health services through Medicaid.
- Quality. Reforming our delivery and payment systems so that high-quality patient- and family-centered care is rewarded and value of care is compensated over volume of services.
- Choice of plan. Creating a health insurance exchange that allows individuals and families to compare plans, just as they would with any major family purchase, so they know they are choosing the best insurance plan for their needs.
- Market protections. Applying federal rating rules across the board and preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to someone based on their age, gender, or a pre-existing condition.
- Adequate coverage. Guaranteeing that insurance coverage be comprehensive and at a minimum cover preventive and primary care, emergency services, hospitalization, outpatient services, maternity and newborn care, medical and surgical care, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse services, and comprehensive reproductive care, without lifetime or annual limits on any benefits.
- Reliability. Eliminating barriers to enrollment in public programs and offering a public health insurance option so consumers have a high-quality, affordable choice for health coverage.
Real reform must address the realities of women's lives and the hardships we face in getting quality, affordable care. The health of our families, and our strength and vitality as a nation, depends on health care reform succeeding.
For more in-depth analysis on each of these areas of reform, please see Health Care Reform: What Women Need.