Women may be the big winners in the health reform game.
A report from the Commonwealth Fund estimates that once fully implemented, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will cover nearly all women, reducing the uninsured rate among women from 20 percent to 8 percent.
Twenty percent of women in the United States—18.7 million—ages 19 to 64 were uninsured in 2010, up from 15 percent (12.8 million) in 2000, the report found. An additional 16.7 million women were underinsured in 2010, compared with 10.3 million in 2003.
“Women, particularly those in their childbearing years, are uniquely at risk for being unable to afford the care they need, having trouble with medical bills, and having high out-of-pocket costs,” says Commonwealth Fund Vice President and report co-author Sara Collins. “The Affordable Care Act will ensure that U.S. women have affordable, comprehensive health insurance that covers the services they need, including maternity care. And women will no longer have to worry about being denied coverage for a preexisting condition or that they will have to pay higher premiums because of their gender or health.”
Commonwealth Fund researchers examined differences in how women fare in the United States compared to women in 10 other countries—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.—all of which have universal health insurance coverage.
The report finds that while uninsured American women were most likely to face problems with medical bills and getting needed health care, even insured U.S. women were more likely to face these problems compared to women in other countries.
Women in the United States said they have problems paying medical bills at double the rate of women in any of the other countries. One-fourth of U.S. women in ages 19–64 had medical bill problems, compared to 13 percent in Australia, 12 percent in France, and 4 percent in Germany.
Also, in 2009-2010, 40 percent of American women spent $1,000 or more on out-of-pocket medical costs and 43 percent said they went without recommended care. Only half said they were confident that they would be able to afford the health care they need if they became seriously ill.
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