During the 2009 health care fight a common refrain came from the mouths of women from across the country: “being a woman is not a pre-existing condition!” Yet as far as insurers are concerned being a woman is a perfectly good reason to charge me higher premiums than my brother.
It’s a common and industry accepted practice called gender rating and it means that women are charged higher health insurance premiums than men. How do insurers rationalize this? It is all about health care utilization, or how much health care women receive. As it turns out, I, as a woman, could possibly at some point in the future get pregnant, and the costs associated with my hypothetical pregnancy would drive my hypothetical medical costs higher. In turn, this drives my actual health insurance premiums higher than those of my male counter parts. One would think that those involved in the health care system would know that in most cases men have something to do with women becoming pregnant, but apparently the responsibility is all on us ladies.
Under President Obama’s health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, this discriminatory practice will be banned in 2014 when most major components of the law go into effect, but until then women will continue to be unduly discriminated against.
Gender rating will continue to make basic health coverage a financial impossibility for far too many women. And consider the potential discriminatory ripple effect. As the economic recession drags on and small business owners (and non-profit directors, i.e. me) are struggling to meet budgets and bottom lines and one cannot help but examine our spiraling health care costs. If I know, as I do, that my health care premiums will be lower if I hire a man instead of women what is to prevent me from doing so?
Ending gender rating is far from a panacea to our unsustainable and troubled health care system. A robust implementation of the Affordable Care Act and comprehensive payment and delivery system reform in the upcoming years could not be more important. However ending this deplorable practice is an easy way to make life a little more equal for women in the Ocean State, and that is always the right thing to do.
Contents of this blog constitute the opinion of the author, and the author alone; they do not represent the views and opinions of Women's Fund of Rhode Island.