Policy Problem

Stakeholders

There are many key stakeholders in women’s healthcare including healthcare providers, neonatal care clinics, employers, planned parenthood, and various other NGOs. Healthcare providers play an essential role in meeting women’s health needs. Access to high quality providers is imperative for women to maintain optimal health, and currently many women report that their plans do not always cover the needed medical care. This poses a problem because almost 50% of women with private insurance report out-of-pocket expenses for a check-up. Additionally, 25% of women report having trouble paying medical bills; these numbers grow in uninsured women and women in poorer health.

 Planned Parenthood seeks to provide access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and supplies women with necessary services including birth control, STD tests, and pelvic exams. For over 100 years, they have proven to be extremely influential in easing access to women’s healthcare, especially in rural communities. However, they have been at risk of losing funding for many years. If these risks come to fruition, it would have devastating effects and thousands of women would be left without care.

Risks of Indifference

The assumption that males are the majority and females are the exception is one of the outcomes of many policies and regulations in the US. As a result, for conditions as diverse as Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, autoimmune disorders, and heart disease, women have been underdiagnosed, undertreated, and even given the wrong treatment regimens entirely. According to new studies and data from electronic brokers, women still pay more for the same health insurance coverage than men.

Most states still have gaps in uninsured women, and there is no evidence that insurers are doing anything to close them. According to eHealth, a renowned online supplier of health insurance, a 30-year-old woman spends $375 per month for a popular Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan in Chicago, which is 31% more than a man of the same age pays for the same coverage.

The National Women's Law Center, a research and advocacy organization, claims that in places where gender rating is not prohibited, more than 90% of the best-selling health plans charge women more than men.

By providing premium tax credits to help individuals acquire coverage in state-based health insurance marketplaces, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased access to the non-group or individually purchased insurance market. It also contained a slew of insurance reforms aimed at removing some of the non-group insurance market's long-standing coverage obstacles.

In 2020, roughly 7% of nonelderly adult women (approximately 7.2 million women) and 7% of nonelderly adult men (approximately 7.2 million men) obtained non-group insurance. This includes women who bought private policies through their state's ACA Marketplace as well as women who bought coverage from private insurers outside of marketplaces.

Women of color, low-income women, and non-citizen women are all more likely to be uninsured. One in five (21%) women with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL) ($26,930 for an individual in 2020) are uninsured, compared to only 7% of women with incomes at or above 200 percent FPL. Over one-fifth of Hispanic women (22%) and American Indian and Alaska Native women (23%) are uninsured. Single mothers are also uninsured at a higher rate (13%) than women in two-parent families (8%).

Nonpartisan Reasoning

The disparity in healthcare access for women can be explained in part by gender discrimination and sexism. Gender bias in healthcare is a prevalent issue and defined when “patients are assessed, diagnosed and treated differently and at a lower quality level because of their gender than others with the same complaints.” Gender bias not only affects patients, but also healthcare workers who may find salary-inequity and harassment throughout their careers. 

There are also racial and ethnic barriers that minority women may face when attempting to access high-quality care. Minority women have much higher rates of chronic illness due in part to their higher uninsured rates. Some groups of minority women even experience higher mortality rates from diseases despite a lower incidence level. 

Health disparities are also present for women living in rural areas due to the lack of women’s health providers and poverty. U.S. women living in rural areas experience higher rates of poor health status than their urban counterparts.

Policy Options

Employers are typically prohibited by civil rights laws from charging women more prices for the same benefits in group health insurance than men. However, for people who purchase insurance on their own, maternity coverage may considerably boost prices. The Women’s Health Equity Act authorizes the Public Service Act to create the Office of Women’s Health within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health to coordinate all Department of Health and Human Services activities and research relating to disease, disorders, or other health conditions that are unique to, more prevalent in, or more serious in women, or for which risk factors or interventions are different for women.