Access To Justice

Last Thursday, a group of women’s rights advocates took their fight against the insurance industry to Capitol Hill.  Their mission: to end unfair insurance practices that discriminate against women.  Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center testified before the Senate Health Education and Labor Committee on Thursday, outlining for the committee the unfair practices of health insurance companies.

Here is some of the information that Greenberger provided to Congress, as reported in the National Law Journal (subscription required):

•    Women are charged as much as 48% more for men than health insurance
•    Of the more than 3500 plans studied (by a 2008 study) 60 percent did not cover maternity
•    Women are regularly denied coverage for “pre-existing conditions” such as pregnancy, or c-section.
•    In eight states, insurance companies are allowed to use a women’s status as a survivor of domestic violence to deny coverage.

California Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed a law that bans so-called gender rating by insurance companies which results in higher premiums being charged to women than men.  It’s an important first step, one that the feds should follow.

That said, there’s much more to be done to curb the discriminatory practices of insurance companies.  I’ll have more on that in the future.