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When it comes to health insurance, Philly women pay more
A study found non-smoking women are charged 38.3 percent more than smoking men. Moreover, just a quarter of Philly insurers offer maternity coverage.
When it comes to health insurance, Philly women pay more
New York, New Jersey and 12 other states have laws curbing health insurers' ability to raise their rates for those who happen to lack a Y chromosome. Pennsylvania does not. As a result, insurers charge women in Philadelphia more — way more — than they charge men.
The Maternity Care Coalition recently studied individual insurance rates and found out just how severe the problem is: "A 25-year-old non-smoking female is charged an average of 38.3 percent more in annual
premium costs than a 25-year-old non-smoking male," they found. "A 40-year-old non-smoking female is charged an average of 28.5 percent more in annual premium costs than a 40-year-old non-smoking male."
Letty Thall, public policy director at the Coalition, notes that the Affordable Care Act will, in 2014 stop that discrimination, which especially effects women in pink-collar positions who earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid.
Until then, though, an even more significant difficulty remains for women: Access to maternity care. The coalition found just 19 out of 74 plans it reviewed in Philly offered maternity coverage. And Thall says that buying extra coverage often costs "more than what you could negotiate to just pay your provider directly."
A pair of bills in the state House and Senate, now set to expire with the end of the 2011-2012 session, would have mandated maternity care coverage for Pennsylvania health insurers and prevented pregnancy from being deemed a "pre-existing condition" by insurers. Sen. Larry Farnese, who sponsored the Senate bill, tells CP women's health care is still on his agenda for the coming session.
But whether Pennsylvania passes its own legislation or merely waits for the Affordable Care Act requirement to kick in, a major question remains: What mandated maternity care coverage may eventually look like. "Often legislators will say, 'Oh, maternity care: That's just hospital. Go and have the baby and we'll cover that,'" Thall says. "We're arguing that it has to be the clinical standard for care: prenatal through postpartum."
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