Analysts to Democrats: Aim pitch at women

This info should be shouted in all areas by all of us. Pass it on.....

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28443.html


Analysts to Democrats: Aim pitch at women


By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 10/19/09 4:55 AM EDT


A woman walks down the street in New York.
Proponents of health reform say women don't know what's in it in for them - and question why Democrats have been slow to target women. Photo: AP


POLITICO 44

With health reform still struggling among voters, analysts say Democrats are missing the chance to win over one key group — women — despite dramatic proposals to transform the way insurers treat them.

All of the bills in Congress add strong new protections for women’s health, but President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats rarely talk about them.

Maternity care would be guaranteed. Insurance companies could no longer charge higher premiums for women than men.

And insurers now allowed to label a Cesarean section or even domestic violence a pre-existing condition to deny coverage would be barred from the practice.

But proponents of health reform say women don’t know what’s in it in for them — and question why Democrats have been slow to target women with the same intensity that political campaigns pursue this key swing group.

“In general, health reformers have missed the opportunity to define health reform as a bread-and-butter issue for women,” said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health policy organization. “It gets discussed in the Beltway, but it doesn’t break through.” .............


http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/10/19/democrats-tell-women-theres-a-health-care-revolution-underfoot



The Democrats' Missing Message For Women and Health Reform

By Amie Newman, RH Reality Check

October 19, 2009 - 1:57pm
Published under: Real Time Blog | Contraception | STI/HIV/AIDS Prevention | Maternal Health | Access to Abortion | Women’s Rights | pregnancy | health care reform | c-section | pre-existing conditions | I am not a pre-existing condition
Amie Newman's blog

Health care reform measures currently making their way through Congress would radically alter health care coverage for women in this country, for the better - and American women don't know.

Why?

Democrats and President Obama aren't speaking to us. The message that health care reform would eradicate gender inequities currently at the core of our health insurance system isn't trickling down to the average woman in the United States. According to an article on Politico about this missing message yesterday,

“There has been a lot of attention this year on the need for health reform,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said last week, “but there has been too little focused on how health reform will work to improve the health and well-being of more than half our nation’s population — America’s women.”

There are dramatic changes underfoot - changes that address heinous discrimination about which commentators and advocates writing on RH Reality Check have been discussing for weeks now. In the Democrats' plan, Politico notes:

Maternity care would be guaranteed. Insurance companies could no longer charge higher premiums for women than men.

And insurers now allowed to label a Cesarean section or even domestic violence a pre-existing condition to deny coverage would be barred from the practice.

If Democrats need anyone to get on board with this plan, it's women. Celinda Lake, one of the most respected Democratic pollsters in this country, says that women are conflicted about health care reform measures at the moment but they are precisely the ones making the majority of health care decisions. From Politico:

“Women are the ones who are going to pay attention to health care, women are the swing vote on health care, women are the ‘influentials,’ meaning if women like the plan, then the men in their lives like the plan,” Lake said. “So in that sense, it makes sense to target women.”
................................

MObama gave a speech telling women to get into it, but nothing much came of that.

Pelosi is now in the game.

finally seen the light.

Is that an "inequity"?

Healthcare reform proposals are all predicated on the idea that gender should not matter when determining premiums. Personaly, I don't have a problem with this from a public policy standpoint (I support single payer, after all) but it is fair to recognize that this means I'm volunteering to pay for someone else's more expensive care, despite the fact that I'm not going to live as long as the person I'm volunteering to help.

The analysts in the article suggest that this is not enough.

I'm simply asking what should the policy priorities be? Is the policy priority to get 51% of the public to think reform is a good idea, or are there public health problems which reform is intended to address?

In the insurance industry, every liability is turned on its head to make a profit. That means that if women occasionally cost more to the insurer, they pay still more than that to cover the loss and increase profits.

If the vig that the insurers factor in remains the same, it means that when women pay out more, they are also paying out more profit to insurers. They get absolutely nothing for this in return, and in fact probably have to deal with more attempts to dodge coverage than men do, which suggests that they sometimes get no return at all for their payments, and probably more often and for more money than men.

The business of insurance is exploitation, not coverage.

None of which are being addressed by HCR, partly because all of the brain cells are being applied to the problem of sales and marketing.

:P

They need a bit thicker coating to make the poison pill go down than to say, "They can't turn you down for a pre-existing condition, but they can charge you whatever they like, and an insurance adjuster gets ultimate veto on any care you get. And the best part is you're forced to pay for this insurance before you pay for your own care!"

It's a tough sell!

.... and I believe she may have. Nothing hard-core or advocating a particular policy issue. But just pointing out the struggles that every-day families are having with health care issues.

Couldn't hurt.