Andrea Maruniak, Media Manager

Andrea Maruniak is Media Manager at the National Women's Law Center. She works to raise the visibility of the Center and its work on health care and reproductive rights in the press and with the general public.

Andrea came to the Center in November 2009 as Program Assistant for Communications. She completed a Master of Arts in Journalism and Bachelor of Journalism at the University of Missouri.

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My Take

Most People Want States to Take Federal Money to Cover More Uninsured People through Medicaid

Posted by Andrea Maruniak, Media Manager | Posted on: April 16, 2013 at 11:07 am

Cross-posted from the Daily Kos.

Across the country, states continue to debate and negotiate whether they will accept federal money to cover more uninsured people through Medicaid. But nearly two out of three people have already made up their minds that lawmakers should take this unprecedented opportunity to cover more people, according to a new survey sponsored by the National Women’s Law Center and Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.

The new health care law known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allocates money for each state to cover more uninsured people through Medicaid. It’s a great deal for states, since these federal dollars will cover 100% of costs in the first few years and will ultimately pay for 90% of the yearly costs of this coverage. But because last year’s Supreme Court decision made accepting these funds optional, in states that choose to turn down the money, some people will earn too little to qualify for tax credits to purchase coverage in the new health insurance marketplace, yet won’t be able to obtain coverage through Medicaid. In other words, these people will fall into a “coverage gap” and will get no help toward affording health coverage, while some people who make more money will still get help.

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Tags: Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid, Medicaid Expansion, Health Care Reform, Medicaid & Other Public Funding, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | 1 comment

Update: Bill Passes Alabama House That Would Let Bosses Make Your Reproductive Health Care Decisions

Posted by Andrea Maruniak, Media Manager | Posted on: February 27, 2013 at 10:40 am

Earlier this month, we told you about a bill introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives that would let bosses use their religion to discriminate against female employees and make decisions about their reproductive health care. Unfortunately, the House passed H.B. 108 last week, and it is scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate today at 11:30 a.m.

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Tags: Alabama, Birth Control Refusal, Birth Control/Contraceptives, Reproductive Refusals and Restrictions | Add new comment

Affordable Care Act Opponent Governor Rick Scott Supports Expansion of Health Coverage through Medicaid

Posted by Andrea Maruniak, Media Manager | Posted on: February 21, 2013 at 06:02 pm

Yesterday Florida Governor Rick Scott—an outspoken opponent of the Affordable Care Act—announced his support for the law’s expansion of health coverage through the Medicaid program, joining the growing ranks of conservative governors who have concluded that it’s just too good a deal to turn down.

The Supreme Court decision that upheld the health care law also allowed states to choose whether to accept the federal money to expand coverage through Medicaid. But if a state chooses to turn down the federal money, some of that state’s poorest and most vulnerable residents will fall into a “coverage gap”. In other words, they will not get any help toward affording health insurance, while people with higher incomes will still get help through the law.

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Tags: Florida, Medicaid, Medicaid Expansion, Health Care Reform, Medicaid & Other Public Funding, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | 1 comment

The Greatest Mother’s Day Gift

Posted by Andrea Maruniak, Media Manager | Posted on: May 13, 2012 at 02:56 pm

If I could give my mom any Mother’s Day gift, I’d reassure her that the health care law is safe. Because, like millions of Americans, my mom has a "pre-existing condition" that her insurance won't cover. And last month, she was forced to pay $14,000 out-of-pocket for cataract surgery. She’d hoped to wait until 2014, when the health care law is fully implemented and pre-existing condition exclusions are banned, but her vision was declining too quickly to keep putting it off.

Unfortunately for the millions of Americans who desperately need the health care law, those who oppose the law for political reasons have brutally slandered it—on the news, in Congress, even in the highest court in the land. And they’ve talked so loudly and adamantly that the law’s significance—what we truly stand to lose—has largely been lost in the debate.

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Tags: Affordable Care Act (ACA), Health Care, Health Insurance, Mother's Day, Health Care Reform, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment

Abortion in Missouri

Posted by Andrea Maruniak, Media Manager | Posted on: January 22, 2012 at 01:05 pm

I find it more than a little ironic that 39 years after Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in this country, states across the country passed a record-breaking 92 restrictions on access to abortion. Every time I read about another law imposing burdensome requirements on abortion providers or women seeking abortions, I think about a friend of mine who had an abortion in Missouri (my home state and one that has more than its fair share of anti-choice laws). Thankfully, she was able to get the care she needed, but she had to overcome numerous hurdles to do so. And it’s easy to imagine that those obstacles could have been nearly impossible to surmount for another woman whose circumstances were slightly different.

It was about two years ago when Katie called me in tears and told me she was pregnant. She was on birth control but had missed a pill the previous month, which was apparently enough for her to become pregnant. Katie wasn’t ready to have kids, and she was certain that abortion was the right choice for her. But it seemed that the state of Missouri didn’t trust her to make that choice. Over the weeks leading up to her abortion, Katie called me nearly every day, and most days she was in tears. Not only was she going through an emotionally difficult experience, but she was forced to jump through a series of hoops that made her feel as if the state was punishing her for her choice.

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Tags: Abortion, Roe v. Wade, Trust Women Week, Barriers to Reproductive Care, Pregnancy Rights, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | 2 comments