Health Care

August brought with it a victory for women’s health. It was announced that all new health insurance plans would be required to coverage preventive services such as contraceptive coverage. However, in not so great news, the mandate included language that would allow religious employers to deny such coverage on the basis of religious or moral beliefs; also known as a “refusal clause.” Today, many religious institutions are pushing to expand the language, creating the opportunity to deny more woman necessary preventive services.

Needless to say I’m having a difficult time grasping what this so-called, “conscience clause” actually means. Call me silly, but it actually seems immoral to deprive a woman of contraception if those pills are necessary for her to maintain her health. It seems quite immoral to make a woman choose between receiving adequate health care coverage and her job. Do we honestly think it’s fair to deny contraceptive coverage to a teacher at a Catholic school or university even though she may not be Catholic herself? Read more »

Since HR 358 passed the House of Representatives back in October, we’ve heard from a few of our supporters in the states. These advocates have been alerting us that their legislators just don’t get it. They fail to understand what this dangerous piece of legislation would do and they don’t understand why our advocates are opposed to it (hint: because it is dangerous, you know, and women could die as result of its passage).

The thing we learned from looking at the responses from the offices of Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) and Representative Chris Gibson (R-NY) is that they’re okay being out of touch with their constituents.  In fact, they’re ok not even acknowledging that are taking positions opposed by their constituents. Neither legislator addressed the concerns our advocates raised about this harmful legislation, instead just assuming that the constituents contacting them on this issue were in agreement with their anti-choice stance. Failing to meaningfully respond to the constituents’ concerns is worrisome considering the significant impact HR 358 would have on women and their families. Read more »

A recent article in the New York Times finally sheds light on a question many LGBT individuals have been asking for years: why is it so hard to find culturally competent health care professionals who are willing and able to deal with the unique health issues that face the LGBT community?

In a study done by Stanford’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Medical Education Research Group, researchers found that many medical schools only provide students with five hours of training on health care for LGBT patients. One third of medical schools did not give any LGBT medical training. Also, over twenty-five percent of the medical school deans surveyed characterized their school’s LGBT training as “poor” or “very poor.” About half of the surveyed deans characterized their school’s training as “fair.”   Read more »

Women are unique. Our time spent as full time employees often coincides with our time spent as family caregivers. We are more times than not bombarded with societal double standards. But, we deal. We deal with these things every day, no matter how frustrating.

Not surprisingly, our health concerns and needs are unique. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we can be better prepared to deal with these as well.

Because of landmark legislation on the health care front, young women will now have the option to receive potentially life-saving screenings without a co-pay, making it easier for many women to access them. In fact, starting in January 2012, all new health insurance plans will be required to cover preventive care, such as STI screenings for young women at no additional cost. Read more »

The National Women’s Law Center hosted a daylong seminar in Washington, DC welcoming 18 state advocates from 10 states across the country to launch a new project, State of Women. Read more »

Let’s review some facts.

According to the latest Census Bureau data, there are record numbers of poor women and children nationally, and widespread poverty and insecurity in the states. In Florida, 15.8 percent of women are poor. Women working full time, year round in Florida are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. 9.7 percent of women in Florida are unemployed. And 27.0 percent of women in Florida were uninsured.

So what is one Florida Congressman doing about it? Absolutely nothing. Read more »

It’s that time of year again – the smell of sharpened pencils, the sound of clapping erasers. Okay, I admit it: clearly, I’m no longer in school. But I do remember what it was like – the excitement of your new classes and professors, the thrill of going back to see your friends after you were stuck at your parents’ house all summer working some menial part-time job that you didn’t love very much, and oh yes, welcome back parties. There are so many things happening during those first weeks back to school, it’s easy to see why many people forget to think about their health. And when I say health, I don’t mean the college diet that consisted of a coke and chocolate chip cookie. Read more »

Over 60,000 of you signed our petition to support no-cost birth control, and earlier today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is adopting expert recommendations to require health insurers to cover contraception, along with a number of other preventive health services for women, without charging women co-payments. We got you covered – birth control without a co-pay will soon be a reality!

Thank HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for moving women’s health a huge step forward. Read more »

A new year is right around the corner, and it seems like everyone is setting goals and resolutions for what they hope to achieve in 2011 (and beyond). So it’s especially fitting that earlier in the month, the U.S. Read more »

Does your employer-sponsored health insurance cover your birth control? Most of us couldn’t have said “yes” ten years ago.  Read more »