[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3860-3861]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WHAT IS A WOMAN WORTH?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank Congresswoman Woolsey 
for her impassioned and principled leadership not only on this issue 
but so many issues facing Americans. To loosely paraphrase Judy 
Collins, We have looked at health insurance reform from both sides 
now--from insurance

[[Page 3861]]

companies and consumers, from Wall Street and families, from 
Republicans and Democrats. But there has been something missing from 
the debate.
  This evening I would like to ask the question: What's a woman worth? 
Just how important is it to make sure that quality, affordable health 
care is affordable to the grandmothers, the mothers, the daughters, and 
sisters who are responsible for 80 percent of a family's health care 
decisions; 64 percent of a families' budgets; who represent 79 percent 
of the health care providers in this country.
  What is a woman worth? Is a woman worth as much as a man? One would 
think so, unless, of course, one was considering our current health 
care system, a system where women pay higher health care costs than 
men. Now, believe it or not, in 60 percent of the most popular health 
care plans in this country, a 40-year-old woman who has never smoked 
will pay more for health insurance than a 40-year-old man who has 
smoked. A lower percentage of working women receive employer-based 
health care. It is a system where health situations that affect only 
women, such as maternity care and mammograms, are less likely to be 
covered than common male procedures.
  In fact, 90 percent of individual policies available to 30-year-old 
women don't cover maternity care. Now, believe it or not, that is true. 
Ninety percent of the health insurance policies in this country 
available to women 30 years of age don't cover maternity care.
  Now think about this: this Chamber is filled with Members who claim 
to be pro-family and yet defend a system where women have to pay out of 
pocket to have a baby. Many more women are denied coverage due to 
preexisting conditions than men. Why are they denied? They're denied 
because they are women. If you are the one in three women in America 
who has had a C-section, that becomes a preexisting condition, and 
you're not going to get health insurance again.
  If being one in eight of the American women who is diagnosed with 
breast cancer, that becomes a preexisting condition, and God help it if 
you have to go into the individual market and get health insurance, 
because you just won't; or even being the one in four American mothers, 
daughters, and sisters who is a victim of domestic violence. Imagine 
having been declined health insurance because your spouse or 
significant other has beaten you--and may do it again. And because that 
significant other or spouse may do it again, you can't get health 
insurance. As a result of these and other factors, women are more 
likely to be uninsured or underinsured. And more than half of the women 
have delayed or skipped needed medical care due to the high cost of 
treatment.
  So I ask again: What is a woman worth? Is a woman worth a health care 
system that encourages preventative care by eliminating copays for 
recommended services such as mammograms and maternity care? Is a woman 
worth a health care system that bans annual and lifetime caps? Is a 
woman worth a health care system that prohibits insurers from charging 
us more than men? Is a women worth a health care system that covers 
maternity services, outlaws preexisting conditions, and dropping 
patients who become ill, and limits out-of-pocket expenses to prevent 
the 62 percent of bankruptcies caused by medical bills?
  I think women are worth that and much, much more. As a matter of 
fact, women are worth their elected officials showing some backbone to 
stand up to the multimillion-dollar misinformation campaigns to do 
what's right and reform a health care system that is unfair, 
inefficient, and unavailable to far too many American women.

                          ____________________