NWLC’s Weekly Roundup: April 30 – May 4

We’ve hit May, and I hope you know what that means: time for new ads promoting great prices on things to buy to show Mom your undying adoration of her. So now I want to ask:

Really, Verizon Wireless? REALLY? This is your Mother’s Day commercial?

Let’s celebrate Mother’s Day with buckets of tears and deals on phones! Um, no thanks.

(On a semi-related note: if anyone in my family spent any time crying this week that had anything remotely to do with Verizon Wireless, it was probably my dad crying tears of joy after I finally broke my cell phone line away from his account and onto my own.)

UPDATE, May 7: Looks like Verizon has edited their ad. You can still watch the clip above for the original, but check out this altered version that was added to Verizon Wireless’ YouTube page on Friday:

In other news, Rachel Maddow has been on a tear concerning equal pay this week. It started with her Sunday appearance on Meet The Press and continued on her own show – catch the clip below of Rachel talking with IWPR President Heidi Hartmann.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Over on The Health Care Blog, Maggie Mahar has a new blog post up on gender rating. As she points out, even without maternity care benefits, a third of health care plans charge women at least 30% more than men. And why, exactly, are some of us being charged so much more? I’ll let Maggie explain:

Insurers explain that women cost them more, even if policies don’t cover maternity, because “they are more likely to visit doctors, get regular check-ups, take prescription drugs, and have certain chronic illnesses.”

In other words, women are penalized for taking care of themselves.

Wonderful.

CAP’s Jessica Arons has even more on the topic of women and the health care law this week. She focuses on what’s at stake if the Supreme Court strikes down some or all of the law in June – which includes protections against gender rating. Be sure to read both “Is the Fact that I Am a Woman Considered a Pre-Existing Condition?” and “Women and Obamacare” for a full picture of this issue.

Other interesting items this week:

The Soapbox: In America, We Treat Our Moms Like Second-Class Citizens
Teen Activist Asks Seventeen Magazine To Skip The Photoshop
Number of Female CEOs About to Get Less Pathetic
Picture This: Health Care Law Saves Women's Lives
Stephen King: Tax Me More [Note: includes “colorful” language]
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, a five-part series from The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

• Part 1: Would Tax Hikes Shrink Taxable Income?
• Part 2: Would Tax Increases Affect Work Effort?
• Part 3: Would Tax Increases Affect Savings and Investment?
• Part 4: Would Tax Increases Affect Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship?
• Part 5: Can Tax Increases Help Economic Growth?

That’s all for this week! What have you been reading? Let us know by sharing a link in the comments or emailing it to me at djackson(at)nwlc(dot)org.