Women Could Pay More Than Men For Health Care Under Trump

[smilesammich 10,727]

Some women have been worried that they will lose insurance coverage for contraception under the Trump administration, but coverage for other women's health benefits could also be at risk.

At or near the top of the list is guaranteed coverage of maternity services on the individual insurance market. Before the health law, it was unusual for plans purchased by individuals to cover prenatal care and childbirth. But the Affordable Care Act requires that maternity care be included as one of 10 essential health benefits.

In 2009, the year before the health law passed, just 13 percent of individual plans available to a 30-year-old woman living in a state capital offered maternity benefits, according to an analysis by the National Women's Law Center.

Some plans offered maternity services as an add-on through a special rider that paid a fixed amount, sometimes just a few thousand dollars, the study found. But even with a rider, a woman's financial exposure could be significant: the total payment for a vaginal birth was $18,329 in 2010, according to a study by Truven Health Analytics.

Before Obamacare, women were also generally charged higher rates for health insurance than men on the individual market. According to the law center's analysis, 60 percent of best-selling individual plans in 2009 charged a 40-year-old nonsmoking woman more than a 40-year-old man who smoked, even in plans that didn't include any type of maternity coverage.

That inequity disappeared under the health law, which prohibited insurers from charging women higher rates than men for the same services.

"Our concern is going back to a world where insurance companies are writing their own rules again, and returning women to those bad old days in health care and losing all the progress we've made," says Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women's Law Center.

And preventive health services for women could be on the line if the health law is repealed or changed. Some may be easier to get rid of than others, say women's health policy analysts.

Under Obamacare, preventive services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force have to be covered without copays or deductibles. The task force, an independent panel of medical experts, evaluates the scientific evidence for screenings, medications and services. That currently includes recommendations on screening for breast and cervical cancer and testing for the BRCA 1 and 2 genetic mutations that increase women's risk of breast cancer.

"Coverage of those services can't be changed without a change to the statute" that created the health law, says Dania Palanker, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. If the law is repealed, then that could happen.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/29/503713772/women-could-pay-more-than-men-for-health-care-under-trump

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/29/503713772/women-could-pay-more-than-men-for-health-care-under-trump

Since Trump has not proposed one single thing yet on healthcare, they are worried that women will loose health coverage.

This is exactly the kind of junk journalism that drives the low information voter

[smilesammich 10,727]

Since Trump has not proposed one single thing yet on healthcare, they are worried that women will loose health coverage.

This is exactly the kind of junk journalism that drives the low information voter

right, npr is junk journalism.

[yuna628 9,744]

Considering I am already about to lose healthcare coverage, I suppose it's only looking up from here.

[Eric-Pris 1,607]

How about we let the guy do something be we criticize him for it. :rofl:

[smilesammich 10,727]

if the guaranteed maternity coverage is scrapped, we can go ahead an place our bets on the establishment of a permanent underclass..err uh legal work force..

[smilesammich 10,727]

How about we let the guy do something be we criticize him for it. :rofl:

this article is about what aca accomplished for those who were getting the raw end of the deal prior to aca. if aca is done for, as trump has promised, then those of us with a bit of skin in the game should be considering those consequences.

i realize you didn't read the article, but i mean, not every discussion is about exalting trump mmmkkk?

[Merrytooth 5,748]

Considering I am already about to lose healthcare coverage, I suppose it's only looking up from here.

Blue Cross Blue Shield is also existing Minnesota health plans market due to extraordinary financial losses.

[yuna628 9,744]

Blue Cross Blue Shield is also existing Minnesota health plans market due to extraordinary financial losses.

Well BCBS isn't pulling out of MD as of yet, they are simply pulling all their bronze and jacking up the price of what's barely remaining. Our regulatory board will basically rubber stamp whatever price they ask for. When you think about it, there is so little competition in companies offering plans, they sort of have their own little monopoly. Though I suppose it's the same in other states. Still amazing when I see BCBS offering higher tier plans in other states at a fraction of the cost.

[Merrytooth 5,748]

Could be due to disproportionate concentration of people with serious medical conditions in that individual market / state.

Too many old, pre-existing conditions people buying health plans while young healthy people not signing up.

Also, insurers can't cross state lines due to local and state regulations codes ..etc?

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/29/503713772/women-could-pay-more-than-men-for-health-care-under-trump

I had insurance for many many years before the disaster of Obamacare. Not one plan I ever had excluded child birth.

Also you do realize this op ed peice has a thesis statement that starts with , some women are worried. Not one concrete factual statement in the snowflake peice

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I had insurance for many many years before the disaster of Obamacare. Not one plan I ever had excluded child birth.

Also you do realize this op ed peice has a thesis statement that starts with , some women are worried. Not one concrete factual statement in the snowflake peice

Perhaps it is not unreasonable for the aforementioned worried women, based on campaign promises and actual Trump statements and behavior towards women, to trust their guts a supreme a-hole won the election and it is indeed reasonable to fear his stated actions won't be good for women? I'm comfortable with that.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

Perhaps it is not unreasonable for the aforementioned worried women, based on campaign promises and actual Trump statements and behavior towards women, to trust their guts a supreme a-hole won the election and it is indeed reasonable to fear his stated actions won't be good for women? I'm comfortable with that.

"A supreme a-hole won the election" Wow you are probably a low information voter yourself and just listen to whatever NPR or CNN says about him to base your opinion on that. Since Killary did far more horrendous things to women than Trump ever did, you have your got statement backwards.

I really can't believe all this fake so called journalism being thrown around that is trying to stoke the fears of people about what a Trump Presidency will look like. I don't believe all of Obamacare will be thrown out at all, I would like to see a more tailored plan where single men do not have to pay for women's contraceptive coverage at all for example. But we will see when he takes office everything being said means nothing until he is actually in office.

[yuna628 9,744]

"A supreme a-hole won the election" Wow you are probably a low information voter yourself and just listen to whatever NPR or CNN says about him to base your opinion on that. Since Killary did far more horrendous things to women than Trump ever did, you have your got statement backwards.

I really can't believe all this fake so called journalism being thrown around that is trying to stoke the fears of people about what a Trump Presidency will look like. I don't believe all of Obamacare will be thrown out at all, I would like to see a more tailored plan where single men do not have to pay for women's contraceptive coverage at all for example. But we will see when he takes office everything being said means nothing until he is actually in office.

Okay. You don't want to pay for our contraceptives, how about we women don't feel like paying for your Viagra, vasectomies, ED-treatments, male-specific conditions, STD treatments, and any prostate disease. While we're at it, I also don't feel like paying for any person currently smoking or an alcoholic, their medical costs hurts my bottom line.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Okay. You don't want to pay for our contraceptives, how about we women don't feel like paying for your Viagra, vasectomies, ED-treatments, male-specific conditions, STD treatments, and any prostate disease. While we're at it, I also don't feel like paying for any person currently smoking or an alcoholic, their medical costs hurts my bottom line.

Wait. Someone will pay for Viagra ? Tell us more please.