Low-Income Women Feel the Effects of Outdated Health Care

As a recent college graduate, I've entered the "real world" at a relatively scary and inopportune time. I hear the words "recession" and "health care reform" too many times to count in any single day, and the longer I spend searching for a full-time job, the more I realize how closely these two issues are actually related. I just read in the Huffington Post that women are 40 percent more likely than men to be poor. Then I read in US News that 95 percent of insurance agencies charge women more than men for the same coverage, and that for 60 percent of plans, a 40 year-old female who doesn't smoke will pay more than a 40 year-old man who does. Scarier yet, some 25-year-old women are charged up to 84% more for individual plans than men of the same age—and those are plans that exclude maternity coverage!

I spent four years in college preparing for the real world, but somehow after that ephemeral moment of pride and glory that it all led up to, proudly holding my diploma and imagining my perfect future, it all hit me at once. Finding full-time employment in this economy is not easy. Paying for health insurance without a full-time job is almost impossible, and now that the grace period on my student loans has expired, I truly know what it feels like to walk around with a big black cloud above my head.

And yet, it could be much worse. I'm just starting out, and I have a bachelor's degree, which is definitely an asset in the search for employment. I have family who is happy to house me (temporarily, anyway) if I suddenly find myself unable to make rent. I don't have children to support, and as far as health insurance agencies are concerned, I don't have a "pre-existing condition" that would make it even harder for me to afford coverage. What I mean by this is that I don't have cancer or a sexually transmitted disease, and I have never been raped.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for many American women. According to US News & World Report, women can be denied coverage if they've ever had a caesarian section, or if they've been a victim of domestic violence. The Huffington Post has also reported on several women who were denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions like post traumatic stress disorder as a result of being raped.

Higher chances of being denied coverage aren't the only issues women face in the search for decent health care, though. According to the Huffington Post, women are more likely than men to hold part-time, minimum wage jobs, which leaves many women without any insurance at all. Not only do these women have to worry about their own health, but with 11.5 million single mothers in the US, many of them also need health care coverage for their children. The Huffington Post quotes The Shriver Report, A Woman's Nation: 

It is especially poor and low-income women, women of color, and immigrant women who are driven into the most hazardous and low-status jobs, who are given the least amount of flexibility in their schedules and who are least likely to receive employer-provided benefits such as health care, sick leave, or family leave.