Health Care and Women

The Independent Women's Forum has an excellent study by Nina Owcharenko focusing on health care, especially as it concerns women. Following is the summary.

The full report can be accessed here.

Women are the nation's major healthcare decision makers.

1 An election survey of voters found women listed health care as a higher priority than men.
2 Women recognize that the current healthcare system has many problems, many of which directly or indirectly affect working women, married women, and mothers. At the forefront of concerns facing Americans, but especially women, is the lack of healthcare security. An estimated 19 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 64 have no healthcare coverage.
3 Issues such as rising healthcare costs, changing workforce dynamics, and the shortcomings of public health programs all affect healthcare coverage for women and contribute to the consequences of uninsurance for all Americans.

Policymakers must act on initiatives that help alleviate the unease in the current health-care system and prevent a further increase in the number of Americans without health insurance. These policies should be based on the principles of individual ownership, choice, and control. Policymakers should:

-Reform the tax treatment of health insurance;
-Expand coverage options;
-improve consumer-directed care models;
-Modernize the employer-based system; and,
-Transform the current entitlement structure.