Did You Know Women Pay More for Health Insurance in America?
It is no secret that health insurance in America is rather expensive. But did you know that if you are a woman that you are paying more for your health insurance than a male counterpart? How much more? Well, we are talking about hundreds of dollars more each year compared to men of the same age.
Insurance companies say that this is because women between the ages of 19 and 55 incur more healthcare costs due to childbearing. They also cite that women are more likely than men to visit doctors, get regular checkups, to take prescription medications, and to have certain chronic conditions. Of course, what is not said is the gender bias that results in conditions that affect men getting more research precedence than those that affect women. Consider for a moment that Viagra is covered under Medicare but breast reconstruction is not. Consider that migraines primarily plague women and not a lot has been done to study how to stop them. Yet, studies clearly were done that led to Viagra.
Fortunately, some members of Congress have started to question insurers’ justifications for women’s higher premiums. It is yet to be seen though if anything will be done about it or if the insurance lobbyists will bury the issue.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I don’t think that there is any deliberate conspiracy to charge women more. I believe that its just a matter of bean counters and statistics that drive the rates.
As far as breast reconstruction…. I believe that it would be fair to expect it to be covered, particularly when it follows some sort of treatment, such as for breast cancer or an injury. Another thing, breast reduction should be covered, for women who feel that large breasts are interfering with their lives in some way. But I don’t think cosmetic surgery should be covered outside of these circumstances.
I wonder why women primarily get migrains… research would not be out of order here. Is it really true? Or perhaps, due to the different ways that men and women think, perhaps its just reported more for women? Many guys might tough it out, pretend it didn’t exist, so that they didn’t appear to be weak or some such thing. *shrug*