fwd-SINGLE PAYER FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN--Insurance Company Deal: You Sell Us Your Soul, We'll End Discrimination

Insurance Companies Tell Congress: You Sell Us Your Soul, We'll End Discrimination 

" Ending discrimination against women should not be contingent on giving private health insurance companies a monopoly to sell us high-priced health coverage."  

http://thenewagenda.net/2009/05/08/insurance-companies-tell-congress-you-sell-us-your-soul-well-end-discrimination/

The insurance companies are offering us a deal that's NO DEAL:  They will agree to do away with gender rating and other unpopular insurance company policies if Congress enacts a health reform plan that does two key things: 1) Impose a mandate on every American to have health insurance; and 2) Drop the idea of creating a public plan option that would compete with private health insurers.

NO DEAL

The  insurance companies want everyone to be forced to buy coverage.--so they can make more profit. They've made considerable profits for many years by discriminating against women. The insurance companies are fighting a public plan because a public plan would compete with their profit motives.  

We know that:

1. The individual healthcare insurance market fails women. It is difficult for women to get approved for coverage. Insurance companies can deny women for coverage for a variety of reasons that are particularly relevant to women, such as having had a Caesarean section or being a survivor of domestic violence.


2. If they do get coverage - women often face higher premiums than men for the same coverage. In 40 states and the District of Columbia, insurance companies are permitted to charge women higher insurance premiums than men under a common insurance industry practice known as "gender rating."


3. And if a woman does find coverage she can afford it may not be comprehensive enough to meet her needs. The vast majority of the more than 3500 individual market health insurance policies examined do not cover maternity care at all.

To the insurance companies: NO DEAL.

Only a single-payer approach to healthcare reform will END THE INHUMANITY OF OUR FAILED HEALTHCARE INSURANCE SYSTEM, WHERE PROFITS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PATIENTS' HEALTH, and where people die because of it.

A request for Single-payer supporters:  Please go to the website of The New Agenda,  a non-partisan organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. Let them know why single-payer will work the best.  When they understand why single-payer is the best for women, children, and families, and men, they will support single-payer reform in a big way. The New Agenda is a great group of activists to have on your side.  They know how to make things happen. They know how to get media attention.  

Please blog about single-payer here:   http://thenewagenda.net/2009/05/08/insurance-companies-tell-congress-you-sell-us-your-soul-well-end-discrimination/ and here: http://thenewagenda.net/  And offer to write a piece on single-payer for their website.

Our fight against the insurance companies' discrimination against women, and for equal access to healthcare for all, is about democracy, human rights, civil rights, and basic human decency.