Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, an estimated 64 million women do not have adequate health insurance coverage. 1.7 million women have lost their health insurance coverage since the beginning of the economic turndown, which was somewhere around December 2007.
Nearly two-thirds lost coverage because their spouse's job was lost. Thirty-nine percent of all low-income women lack health insurance coverage. Women are more likely to deplete their savings accounts paying medical bills than men. Women are charged up to 48 percent more than men in the individual market.
Any medical event can place a woman at risk for potentially devastating financial costs, even when she has insurance.
In a recent study, more than half of women reported delaying needed medical care due to costs compared with 39 percent of men. In many cases, even women and children with insurance do not receive key preventive care, from mammograms to well-baby and well-child care, because they can't afford the copays. Partly due to cost, 1 in 5 women over the age of 50 has not had a mammogram in the past 2 years.
Now, our health care reform stops insurance premium discrimination against women known as gender rating. It bans insurance companies from charging women higher premiums than men for the same coverage. Since 40-year-old women are charged up to 48 percent more than 40-year-old men with the same health status, we really need this bill.
It would end discrimination based on preexisting conditions such as domestic violence and previous C-sections, prohibiting insurance companies from charging higher rates for these conditions. The bill says that 79 percent of women with individual market policies will have the maternal coverage that they haven't had in the past.
Our health care reform bill requires maternity care to be a part of essential benefits. It requires all employer plans and gateway plans to have women's screening and preventive care provided at a minimum or no cost. This includes annual mammograms for women under 50.
It will allow women to visit their choice of community providers who offer the spectrum of essential benefits, including women's health clinics. It would allow OB-GYNs to be the center of a medical home supported by community health teams. It codifies offices of women's health via the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that women's health issues will be comprehensively addressed, from basic research to awareness campaigns.
I would say, Mr. Speaker, to all of my colleagues that if we really want to make the United States a number one Nation in health delivery, let's start with the women who bear the children who will be the future of this country.