Gender Rating and the ACA
The ACA (Affordable Care Act of 2010) marked the first time ‘gender-rating’ was prohibited by law. Gender-rating is the unfair insurance company practice of charging women higher premiums than men without justification of higher expenses and without comparable benefits. Before 2010, women were paying about $1 billion more than men in annual premiums. These higher rates fly in the face of the evidence that over a lifetime, women and men have similar health costs. Women’s costs are higher when they are younger and men’s costs are higher when they are older. Any claims that higher costs for women are related to maternity care are dispelled by the fact that so few insurance policies before 2010 even covered maternity.
The repeal of the ACA, which has been repeatedly attempted by this Congress, could allow gender-rating to resume. An ERA would prohibit gender-rating and would certainly make it more difficult for a corporation or an individual to treat people differently and unfairly, solely because of their gender.
Equal Rights Maine
A group of Mainers advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
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