by Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center  

This post is part of a series on Women and Health Reform.

NWLC’s health and reproductive rights team does a lot of work around the importance of choice.  We advocate for reproductive choice, so that women can make important life decisions about whether and when to have children. We support choice in childbirth, because we believe that women and their families should be able to have a safe out-of-hospital birth if they so choose. And in our priorities for national health reform, we emphasize choice between public and private health insurance options, since women will benefit from the transparency, security, and competition that a public health insurance option promises. We support these choices because they promote a woman’s wellbeing.

But not all choices in health care are good.  When women can’t afford the health care they need, they are faced with choices that they’d be better off without.  In 2007, more than half of all women in the United States reported problems getting necessary health care because of cost.  They had a difficult choice between their own health care and other financial obligations, and the “other” won out.  Given the many responsibilities that women juggle every day, is this any surprise?  Imagine a young woman choosing between filling a prescription and making a student loan payment.  Or a mother choosing between a follow-up doctor’s visit and buying school supplies for her children.   Or a retiree choosing between a mammogram or paying this month’s electricity bill.  In a country with so many resources, that already spends so much on health care per capita, women should never have to make these sorts of choices. 

Health reform should eliminate these terrible choices once and for all, by guaranteeing access to high-quality, affordable health care.  The bills under debate in both the House and the Senate include many measures to ensure that women no longer face the affordability challenges that have become all too common in our country:

• More women with very low incomes would be eligible for Medicaid
• Low- and moderate-income families would get subsidies to help with their health insurance premiums and copayments
• Individuals and families’ annual out-of-pocket health care spending would be capped
• Health plans wouldn’t be able to charge members for their preventive health care

Members of Congress return to DC today with health reform front and center on the agenda, as it should be—it’s time to get health reform done, and done right.  Women can do without the choice between their own health and other basic necessities, and they’re ready for health reform that will make that happen.

• Tags:
• health
• Reproductive Choices
• Brigette Courtot

View Original Post at womenstake.org