Last week, it was pointed out that in some states, our so-called health insurance companies are allowed to consider domestic violence a pre-existing condition. As Think Progress points out, having had a cesarian section can also be considered a pre-existing condition. Never mind that the U.S. has a sky rocketing c-section rate and that said c-sections are often performed for reasons other than because of medical necessity, such as soaring malpractice insurance rates.
If that doesn’t make you fume, check out Anthem’s explanation as to why c-sections are a pre-existing condition:
“The point of insurance is to insure against catastrophic care costs. That’s what you’re trying to aggregate and pool for such things as heart attacks and cancer,” said an Anthem Blue Cross spokesman. “Having a child is a matter of choice. Dealing with an adult onset illness, such as diabetes, heart disease breast or prostate cancer, is not a matter of choice.”
OH NO! ! It looks like we’re being accused of making reproductive choices again!
On the one hand you’ve got the faux family values folks telling us that we are baby killers if we exercise the right to end a pregnancy and we also have the insurance companies sticking us with the risk of going bankrupt if we have a c-section. Some choice.
And women are bearing all of the financial risk why? And what about pregnancies where the mother would have preferred to get an abortion and couldn’t? And what about pregnancies that are because the parents didn’t understand about contraception because they attended a school with abstinence only sex ed? Does this spokesperson comprehend that the “choice” to have children is how the human species propagates?
This isn’t about choice. It is first of all about insurance companies being out to insure one thing only–their profits, at the expense of the health of the citizens of this nation and secondly that there are not adequate laws protecting women from misogynist profiteering that violate their human rights. Full stop. Enough. We need single payer universal healthcare now and we need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and CEDAW to insure that these horrifying practices end immediately.
The Equal Rights Amendment–It’s Time To Right The Grievous Wrong That Makes Women Second Class Citizens In The U.S.
When my kids were learning U.S. history, I used to recite a version of the Gettyburg Address that went something like this,
Bless their little hearts, I’m sure it was an inadvertent omission. Well okay maybe it was more like an overt usurpation of patriarchal power. So either let’s get this thing passed already or as an alternative get honest and pass an amendment clarifying that we are second class citizens in this country. Geez.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney at ERA Rally
Via the Alice Paul Institute (click link for excellent history of the ERA).
Via Ms.