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.
