Senate Considers Bill Which Will Gut Women's Healthcare Coverage

Posted on March 8, 2006

Lynn Harris of Salon drops this little bombshell today: the Senate is considering a bill that's going to override all state law protections that require insurance companies to cover prescriptions for women's medical issues and which protect pregnant women.

"Today the United States Senate is considering a bill that would have a serious and damaging impact on health coverage for women across the United States. The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act (HIMMAA), introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), would allow insurance companies to ignore nearly all state laws that require insurance coverage for certain treatments or conditions, such as laws that require them to include contraceptives in their prescription plans. [Emphasis added by irate Broadsheet poster.]
"This federal legislation would raze hundreds of state laws that ensure patients can get the medical care they need and would
"-- not allow women to designate their ob/gyns as primary care providers
"-- not allow women to seek care directly from their ob/gyns, but would force them to be screened by their primary care doctors first
"-- dismantle coverage for contraception
"-- dismantle coverage for annual cervical cancer exams
"-- not allow women to stay with the same doctor throughout a pregnancy, if that doctor was dropped from the insurance provider."
In short: "Under HIMMAA women will lose contraceptive-equity protections currently guaranteed by state law."

The arrogance of these lawmakers is simply breathtaking. Women have fought for years for these protections, such as not being forced to change doctors mid-pregnancy just because her doctor is dropped from her insurance plan. If insurance doesn't cover screenings for routine cervical cancer exams, many women won't have them. Most women use their OB/GYN as their primary doctor, relying her to get the correct care and screenings for everything from cancer to osteoporosis: women will have to go to another gateway doctor first before they can get to their OB/GYN under most insurance plans. And the law is so broadly written that many more procedures won't be required to be covered.

What's next? Excluding newborn children from coverage under the mother's policy? It wouldn't surprise me a bit. This is a blatant payoff to the insurance industry by corrupt lawmakers at the expense of the health and safety of American women.