Healthcare Discrimination

Reproductive Care for women is an essential part of complete medical care in a modern nation. Although men’s health issues rarely face public examination by the religious or ethical interests of others, women’s health issues have been a subject of public discussion for as long as women have not had the power to protect themselves.

It is discriminatory for a minority interest to regulate common and normal issues that face a person solely due to her gender. A family's future is at stake with one woman's health choices and a great deal rides on those choices regarding family planning. Women unduly carry the burden of a couple's choices when she is then faced with inadequate-- or absent-- medical care.  

 

Insurance Gender-rating is the unfair practice of charging women higher premiums than men without justification of higher expenses and without comparable benefits. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) marked the first time ‘gender-rating’ was prohibited by law. 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.   
 

The repeal of the ACA, which has been repeatedly attempted by Congress, could allow gender-rating to resume. An ERA would prohibit gender-rating and would make it more difficult for a corporation or an individual to treat people differently and unfairly, solely because of their gender.