Tweet
While the Republicans continue their scare tactics about health care reform (mind you, without presenting a rational alternative), people like this woman below are being jerked around by health insurance companies making beyond outrageous demands. Here is an ad from Americans United for Change highlighting the story of Peggy Robertson, who was denied coverage by UnitedHealth Group’s Golden Rule Insurance for having had a C-section – then later told she could get coverage if she got sterilized. That’s literal womb control.
Tom McMahon, Acting Executive Director, Americans United for Change: “We already know that in most states, insurers can reject women for coverage simply for having previously had a Cesarean section – as Golden Rule Insurance Company reflexively did to Peggy Robertson. But it’s really beyond belief how Golden Rule treated Mrs. Robertson next, literally offering her a choice between having health insurance and having another baby. We understand it’s all about maximizing profits for the health insurance industry so that guys like UnitedHealth Group’s CEO Stephen Hemsley can make $3,241,042 a year – but is there any limit to their greed that they would tell a mother that in order to get health coverage, she first would have to be sterilized? Would Stephen Hemsley treat his own wife or daughter this way? Does Congress need any other reason to pass reform that bans insurance companies from denying Americans coverage for any ‘pre-existing condition’ and establishes a strong public option so Americans like Peggy will always have a place to turn for affordable, quality care?”
FACT: In most states, insurers can reject women for coverage simply for having previously had a Cesarean section (C-section). According to the National Women’s Law Center: “In most states, insurers are free to reject individuals applying for coverage in the individual market. Many women face such rejection at this underwriting stage of purchasing insurance for a wide range of reasons. For example, women have greater health needs than men and are more likely than men to suffer from a chronic condition requiring ongoing treatment, like asthma or arthritis. These conditions can lead to rejection of coverage. In addition, if during the medical underwriting process the insurer discovers that an applicant underwent a past C-section, the company may charge her a higher premium, impose an exclusionary period during which it refuses to cover another C-section or pregnancy, or even reject her for coverage altogether unless she has been sterilized or is no longer of childbearing age.” National Women’s Law Center; Nowhere to Turn: How the Individual Health Insurance Market Fails Women, accessed, 9/17/09
4 Comments
WowShouldn’t this be anathema to conservatives? Not on the woman’s rights (heaven forfend) but on the rights of the kids she might have bourne? Certainly to Catholics.
Conservative outrageSomehow, I think that religious conservatives would still be more outraged if an insurer asked a man to be sterilized rather than a woman. It’s very much a paternalistic group, and you simply can’t ask them to give up their virility. (Even if it’s monumentally safer for a man than a woman.)
Consider that plans are often required to cover viagra, et al, but that birth control is covered far less often. (Even with government insurance, because those who vote on it are generally older, white and male.)
I’d love to see more pro-choice groups pick this up as a rallying point. It would do even more to debunk the misnomer that people insist that pro-choice just means “pro-abortion.”
UHC is one of the worst..I deal with insurance companies every day and UnitedHealth is one of the worst. They have driven down reimbursement for doctors while hiking up co-pays for consumers. Not to mention all of their denials for procedures. I find it interesting that I mail all claims to their headquarters in…….you guessed it………UTAH. Just like the good ole’ IRS. Do the Mormons already own us or is this a coincidence?
interestingYou’d think they’d want her to continue with the Mormon way and pop out as many babies as she possibly can.