Reports & Toolkits

Although men and women have some similar challenges with regard to health insurance, women face unique barriers to becoming insured. More significantly, women have greater difficulty affording health care services even once they are insured. On average, women have lower incomes than men and therefore have greater difficulty paying premiums.Women also are less likely than men to have coverage through their own employer and more likely to obtain coverage through their spouses; are more likely than men to have higher out-of-pocket health care expenses; and use more health care services than men and consequently are in greater need of comprehensive coverage. Proposals for improving health policy need to address these disparities.

This report analyzes the President's FY2008 budget and outlines the prosals that would increase inequality and insecurity for women and families.

Medicaid is a critical source of insurance for low-income women. This toolkit includes background information on the Medicaid program and its importance to women's health; information on the significance of Medicaid to minority communities; an explanation of the 2006 federal Medicaid cuts and their impact on key health services, including information on cost-sharing and documentation requirements; detailed analyses of the importance of Medicaid family planning services and the significance of Medicaid family planning waivers as a means of expanding access; and state-specific information on Medicaid and its importance to women.

This report series is designed to provide health care advocates and others seeking to preserve access to reproductive health services with an understanding of how to use the nation's laws to challenge proposed hospital mergers that threaten to reduce or eliminate these services.