Women’s Concerns Often Missing in Health Care Debate
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Yuliya Chorna, AFL-CIO health care reform campaign intern, contributed to this story.
Soaring health care costs and eroding benefits are seriously impeding Americans’ ability to get needed health care, with women particularly affected, a recent Commonwealth Fund study found.
Women are more likely to use health care services throughout their lives, but on average, are paid less than men, making access to the health care they need even more difficult. A 2008 Kaiser Family Foundation study reported 67 percent of uninsured women went without needed care because of cost, as did nearly 20 percent of women with insurance.
Shawn from Washington state told the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Health Care for America Survey that she was downsized out of a job a decade ago.
I have no health insurance and just a widow’s pension. I’ve had no health care for 10 years, just pay cash when I can and hope that nothing serious happens.
CNA’s Donna Smith, National Organization of Women’s 2009 Woman of Action
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Donna Smith, a community organizer and legislative representative for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), was recently honored as the National Organization for Women’s (NOW’s) 2009 Woman of Action.
Smith first came to the public’s attention in Michael Moore’s 2007 movie, “SICKO.” Despite having health insurance and even a health savings account, Donna and her husband Larry were forced to move into their daughter’s basement after being unable to pay staggering health care costs—and were left in financial ruin.
Donna’s husband, Larry, suffered three heart attacks and Donna was diagnosed and treated for uterine cancer. There is even a scene in the movie “SICKO” where Michael Moore takes Donna to Cuba to get the necessary treatment their insurance wouldn’t pay for.
