Womenstake, NWLC's Blog

Help Me Affordable Care Act, You’re My Only Hope!

Posted by Mara Gandal-Powers, Fellow | Posted on: April 02, 2013 at 09:52 am

A study published in the journal Women’s Health Issues last week highlighted a problem many women have confronted over the years when getting their birth control: even when you have insurance, the costs for contraception can be unaffordable. The study showed that, in 2010, on average women with private insurance paid $10 for a one-month supply of generic pills, $112 for an IUD, and $116 for an implant. The study also found that costs varied depending on your insurer, with some women having to pay more than $17 a month for generic pills, $305 for an IUD, or $308 for an implant. On top of these high costs, the study found that between 2007 and 2010, insurance companies shifted to women costs for long-acting contraceptives, like IUDs and implants. In 2007, a woman paid 13.8% of the cost of an IUD, whereas in 2010 she paid 17.5%.

If these price tags have you confused, there is hope. As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as “Obamacare,” contains a provision that requires health insurers to provide coverage of the full-range of FDA-approved contraceptives without cost sharing.

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Tags: Affordable Care Act (ACA), Birth Control/Contraceptives, Health Insurance, Health Insurance, Health Care Reform, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment

New York Raises Its Minimum Wage (For a Price) and the Fight Continues in Other States

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: April 01, 2013 at 04:48 pm

There’s a lot to report on the minimum wage today, but I’ll start with the biggest news: the New York legislature has approved the state’s 2013-2014 budget, which includes a minimum wage increase. Specifically, the minimum wage will rise from $7.25 to $8.00 per hour on December 31, 2013, to $8.75 one year later, and $9.00 on December 31, 2015.

This is good news for minimum wage workers in New York, nearly two-thirds of whom are women. But the phased-in minimum wage increase in the budget is weaker than the increase that the state Assembly passed just a few weeks ago, which would have raised New York’s minimum wage to $9.00 per hour in one step in January 2014, then indexed the wage annually to keep up with inflation. The budget also drops a provision in the Assembly-passed bill that would have raised the minimum cash wage for tipped food service workers from $5.00 to $6.21 per hour, but it does provide a path to an increase for these workers by authorizing the labor commissioner to have a wage board examine the adequacy of New York’s tipped minimum wage, then issue an order to raise the wage.

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Tags: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minimum Wage, New Mexico, New York | Add new comment

In Case You Missed It: U.S. Courts Reflect on History of Women on the Federal Bench for Women’s History Month

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: April 01, 2013 at 03:38 pm

Although we have turned the calendar page, here’s one last piece from the U.S. Courts website about women in the federal judiciary in honor of Women’s History Month. The article offers a nice bit of historical perspective with information about the first female federal judges, and an infographic that demonstrates the huge – and ongoing -- gap between the number of women law students and the number of women on the bench. 

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Tags: Courts, Women in the Judiciary, Judges & the Courts | Add new comment

On Twitter? Come #TalkPay with NWLC and Special Guests!

Posted by Danielle Jackson, Online Outreach Associate | Posted on: April 01, 2013 at 01:34 pm

Equal Pay Day is fast approaching, and this year NWLC is excited to gather people in a virtual space to talk about equal pay issues. If you’re on Twitter, we hope you’ll join us!

On Tuesday, April 9, 2013 NWLC will be hosting a tweetchat from 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET to talk about equal pay and the wage gap. Our official chat hashtag is #TalkPay.

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Tags: Equal Pay, Social Media, Wage Gap, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

Watch the Video: Tax Issues Are Women’s Issues, Too

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: March 29, 2013 at 01:33 pm

Did you see the first video from NWLC and the National Priorities Project explaining why budget and tax issues are women’s issues? No? Then stop what you’re doing and watch it here.

Now that you’ve seen it, you’re eager for more, right? Well, my friend, you’re in luck. In Part 2, you’ll learn how Congress can protect programs that serve women and families by requiring the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Watch the second video now:

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Tags: Budget, Federal Budget, Taxes, Video, Federal Tax Policy, Tax & Budget | Add new comment

Watch the Video: Budget Issues Are Women’s Issues

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: March 29, 2013 at 01:20 pm

After a couple of weeks of intense debate over budget plans proposed in the House and Senate, you may feel that this week’s Congressional recess is a welcome break from talk of taxes and spending, deficits and debt. But Congress is back in session April 8 – and the budget battles will return, too.

 

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Tags: Budget, Federal Budget, Taxes, Video, Federal Tax Policy, Tax & Budget | 1 comment

Join the National Women's Law Center for Blog for Equal Pay Day 2013!

Posted by Danielle Jackson, Online Outreach Associate | Posted on: March 29, 2013 at 09:46 am

Calling all bloggers! On Equal Pay Day – April 9, 2013 – the National Women’s Law Center will be hosting our annual Blog for Equal Pay Day blog carnival. And we want you to participate!

This June, it will be 50 years since President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law. And today, women still make just 77 cents for every dollar a man makes — that's nearly $11,000 in lost wages every year.

That’s why we’re asking bloggers to participate in this year’s Blog for Equal Pay Day by answering the question, “What would you do with your $11,000 in lost wages?” in your blog posts, but you’re also welcome to choose an alternative topic. Please feel free to include policy analysis, personal experiences, reports, graphs, etc in your blog posts as well!

NWLC will collect and publish links to the blog posts on Equal Pay Day (April 9, 2013). Click through for all the details you need to get involved in the blog carnival.

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Tags: Equal Pay, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

Abortion Opponents are Not Giving Up on Taking Benefits Away from Women

Posted by Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel & Director of State Reproductive Health Policy | Posted on: March 28, 2013 at 02:02 pm

Oh no he didn’t! Virginia Governor McDonnell Monday night added a ban on insurance coverage of abortion to a health care bill passed by the Virginia legislature. The underlying bill was meant to bring the state into compliance with the federal health care law – in other words, to help ensure affordable and comprehensive coverage for people, not take benefits away. But that’s exactly what Governor McDonnell’s amendment would do. And he’s not the only one.

Abortion insurance coverage bans have been introduced so far this year in at least 10 states. Some of these states are already among the 21 states that have such bans. But this year abortion opponents in those states want to prohibit even more women from obtaining abortion insurance coverage. Like Alabama, where a bill has been introduced to expand their exchange ban to all private plans and to take coverage away from survivors of rape and incest.

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Tags: Abortion, Abortion, Health Insurance, Health Insurance, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Barriers to Reproductive Care, Health Care Reform, Pregnancy Rights, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment
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