Presidential candidate John McCain’s health care reform plan would have a devastating impact on women, according to a new analysis.
“Tens of millions of women would be at risk of losing their current insurance coverage even though they use health care services more frequently than men, suffer chronic illness more often than men, and require maternity care and other reproductive health services,” concludes a report by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
The aim of McCain’s health care plan
is to break up the existing employer based health care coverage system
and replace it with a market-oriented system funded in part by the
government.
Employers
that currently offer health care coverage would find fewer incentives
to continue doing so under the McCain plan. Instead, individuals would
be given a tax credit of $2,500 (families would receive $5,000) so that
they could shop around on the open market for the best plan for them,
whether that insurer is based in the same state or not. The catch,
though, is that the private insurance market doesn’t treat women that
well.
The study reports that if McCain’s plan is implemented, “more than 30 million women with employer-sponsored health insurance who suffer from a chronic condition could lose their coverage, find it harder to obtain coverage, or have to purchase supplemental insurance to cover their chronic condition.”
Insurance Companies Would Benefit, Not Individuals
The McCain plan may help healthy people who don’t need frequent health care services or prescription medication. These people are more likely to be men. Women, on the other hand, are more likely than men to need health care. Women also have higher out-of-pocket medical expenses and are more likely to need prescription medication than men.
So when
women—especially those with a chronic condition such as high blood
pressure—shop for new insurance coverage with McCain’s tax credit,
“they are more likely to be charged higher-than-average premiums—even
if they have had continuous insurance coverage—and more likely to face
significant limits on their health benefits,” the study found.
Women
are further penalized by increased out-of-pocket costs because women
have less disposable income than men; even in 2008, a woman only earns
78 cents for every dollar earned by a man. And remember, too, that
McCain didn’t support a pay equity proposal in the Senate this past
spring, because it “opens us up to lawsuits.”
Under McCain’s
plan women could also lose some important consumer protections that
are mandated in certain states because insurers could be located in a
state with fewer consumer protections and still sell to individuals in
other states.
“With these changes, the McCain plan would
enable insurance companies to cut essential benefits such as
contraceptives, Pap smears, and maternity care from their health plans;
to charge more for access to these types of essential services; and to
deny individuals coverage that will meet their needs,” the report
states.
But is this free-market, fend-for-yourself approach to
health care all that surprising? After all, when McCain’s hand-picked
running mate, Alaska
Gov. Sarah Palin, was mayor of tiny Wasilla, rape victims were forced
to pay up to $1,200 for their own rape exam kits used to gather
evidence. The practice was found to be so offensive that the Alaska
legislature passed a bill outlawing it in 2000.
So who would be the big
winner if McCain’s plan is adopted? “In short, Sen. McCain’s plan seeks
to maximize the profits of health insurance companies, not maximize
health insurance coverage for Americans— especially women,” the study
concluded.
What’s your take? Write: editor@shepex.com or comment on this story online at www.expressmilwaukee.com.
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