UCDW
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Healthcare is especially important for women of all ages and ethnicity, as we are more likely to have lower incomes than men and work part time. Women are less likely than men to be eligible for or able to afford their part of employer-sponsored health coverage. Women covered as dependents on a spouse’s healthcare plan lose coverage if they divorce or are widowed. Over 43 million Americans are uninsured—the majority of whom are employed! —and 14,000 more lose coverage each day due to job loss, denial, and economic hardship. 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs. 62% of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were linked to medical expenses. 80% of those people HAD health insurance! |
We ask that congress protect the true intent of healthcare reform from being gutted by profiteering insurance and pharmaceutical companies. A bill that forces everyone to buy health insurance without making it affordable or setting universal standards for care and coverage will not only punish those that need healthcare the most—it will impoverish counties and communities.
In August, UCDW endorsed Healthcare for All. We support Single-Payer Healthcare as defined by HR 676. UCDW adopted Principles of Healthcare Reform we believe to be vital to meaningful reform:
UCDW ENDORSES HEALTHCARE FOR ALL
We support the Single-Payer Health Care bill as defined by HR 676. In addition, UCDW has adopted the following Principles of Health Care Reform we believe to be vital to meaningful reform:
EQUALITY OF HEALTH CARE
We advocate a health care system in which ALL Americans are eligible to receive care as needed throughout their lifetime. Currently, gaps in health care coverage affect minors transitioning to young adults, poor working families, laid-off workers, those with chronic disease (pre-existing conditions), those battling catastrophic illness and the injured. Health Care Reform must continue to provide health care for our poor, elderly, veterans, military, prisoners and those in immigration detention. ALL patients should be treated with respect and sensitivity regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual persuasion or region.
FULL RANGE OF HEALTH CARE
UCDW recognizes that primary care and treatment not only helps keep our population stay healthier it also lowers our overall cost in the long run. Health Care for All should include:
• Reproductive Equality: such as STD prevention counseling, family planning, Contraceptives, pre- and post- natal care
• Vision and Hearing
• Dental Coverage
• Proper Medications
• Standards of care
• Vaccinations
• Regular Physical Exams and Well-Care visits for Children
• Adequate Physical Therapy Rehab time
• Drug and Alcohol Abuse Therapies/Rehab
• Specialized treatment
• End of life and Palliative Care
• Nutrition and healthy lifestyle counseling such as smoking cessation programs
• Choice of doctor, hospitals
• Emergency Room coverage
PARITY OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES
A federal standard of care must be clearly defined by law to create true parity of health care services that levels the field town-to-town, county-to-county, and state-to-state. Quality and access to health care should not vary by region because of a representative's political clout or by the wealth of its community. Politics, religion and ideology must not play a part in providing needed health care services for women seeking family planning information and access to contraceptives, STD treatment and prevention, or decisions to carry a pregnancy forward or not.
ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
Health care administrators view access as one of the biggest obstacles in treating those in need especially the working poor, and those living in poverty, in both rural and urban settings. UCDW supports the following solutions as ways to effect access parity:
• Expand clinics and outreach programs
• Expand transportation programs in rural and urban settings to access services and to those with disabilities
• Help in navigating paperwork for those who are illiterate, are not online or are simply not experienced with paperwork
• Expand Handicap accessibility
UPDATED & ADEQUATE TRAINING FOR HEALTH CARE STAFF DEALING WITH VICTIMS OF CRIME AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Expand protocol training for those who deal with victims of crime, rape, assault and domestic violence. Victims should receive care respectful for age, gender and moral viewpoint from ER personal and other emergency staff equipped and trained to properly examine victims, collect specimens, and preserve evidence. Staff should be ready and able to administer therapies in a timely manner such as the Morning After Pill and HIV prophylaxis if desired by the victim. Further, emergency staff should be aware of the network of services and programs available in their community and be able to connect or place victims with appropriate programs as needed.
ADEQUATE FUNDING FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
Without adequate funding a new health care initiative will wither, add regulations and mandates to already overstrained county budgets across the nation and further burdening tax payers. UCDW asks congress to commit to real funding for health care over the long term. Funding will mean all principals can be realized and include:
• Time to care for patients
• Expansion of clinics and outreach programs
• Help for small hospitals serving communities
• Transportation programs in rural and urban settings
• Fair reimbursement to doctors, hospitals and clinics
EXPAND AND IMPROVE EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURES
The US has already spent millions developing the VA computer system—considered the best in the world. Let’s use it. Dial down the age of Medicare to birth and add needed services for full life-span care.
Signed
JoAnn O. Chamberlain
UCDW, President
On behalf of the membership
RESOURCES
Kaiser Family Foundation - Healthcare Reform news and resources
ACTION
Sign Petition: Stop Stupak/Pitts amendment
Let Congress Know: Being a Woman is NOT a Pre-Existing Condition
Sign Petition
WRITE newspapers and your representatives
SIGN PETITION supporting HR 676
EVENTS
See Health Care Reform EVENTS.
VIDEO:
Senator Kyl doesn't think maternity care should be covered because he doesn't need it!
Raising Women's Voices: Women's Health Care stories.
US Health Care Crisis and Single Payer Health Care.
Eight senators who may stand in the way of Health Care Reform-- along with the total amount of money they’ve received from health and insurance interests:
| Sen. Max Baucus | $3,973,485 |
| Sen. Evan Bayh | $1,565,088 |
| Sen. Kent Conrad | $2,154,200 |
| Sen. Dianne Feinstein | $1,749,887 |
| Sen. John Kerry | $8,994,077 |
| Sen. Mary Landrieu | $1,653,943 |
| Sen. Joe Lieberman | $3,308,621 |
| Sen. Ben Nelson | $2,214,715 |
NY STATE
Health insurance news from Assemblymember Kevin Cahill