30th Anniversary of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act…now what about health care costs?
Oct 31 marked thirtieth anniversary of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. What the act basically did was gave equal rights to women before during and after pregnancy. The law does not permit employers to refuse to hire a pregnant woman or to make assumptions about their inability to carry out certain tasks.
It is a shame that even 30 years later women are still discriminated against when it comes to health care costs. Maybe not by employers….but by the health care system. Basically if you have female parts, your health insurance rates are 2-3 times that of a man’s. I am the operations manager at a small company. On our current health plan a 30 year old male employee pays roughly $115 for insurance per month. A female employee of the same age pays $280. Premiums are based on the group medical uses, so it isn’t because of her health.
There has been talk about forcing employers to help pay for health insurance. It seems obvious to me that if they enforce employer paid health insurance, what you will end up with is a bunch of unemployed women. Small to medium sized business will quickly realize that men are cheaper than women.
It doesn’t even matter if a woman can’t medically have children. The costs are still the same.
Maybe half the cost of the pregnancy should go on the father’s health insurance. After all…the baby is half his…
November 25th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I agree that it is unfair to charge women more for healthcare. I am childless by choice, yet I pay the same rate as a women who are having babies. Women having babies give the insurance companies a financial advantage… as soon as that baby comes out it’s another person paying a premium.
Many women forgo mammograms and routine OB/GYN exams because of the cost, but our insurance premium still reflects the assumption that we’ll have these exams. A man could have ten serious claims in a year, but he’ll still pay a lesser premium. If insurance is going to go with a cost discrimination system, let’s go by actual use… not assumptions because of body parts.