Health Insurance Issues

Health insurance, like other branches of insurance, is a form of mutual assistance by which people collectively pool their risk-in this case, the risk of incurring medical expenses. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program, or from private insurance companies. The covered groups or individuals pay premiums or taxes to help protect themselves from unexpected healthcare expenses. Similar benefits paying for medical expenses may also be provided through social welfare programs funded by the government.

Although many international and European instruments provide the right to health insurance, the Alma-Ata International Conference on Primary Health Care (1978) held by the World Health Organization (WHO) was the first event to put health equity on the international political agenda.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), and the European Union (EU) Roadmap for equality between [Page 676]women and men (2006-10) all emphasized equal right to social security, including health insurance.

Maternity insurance is provided as a separate branch of insurance by the international and European instruments.

Global recession has caused many health systems to lose focus on fair access to care. In transitional and underdeveloped countries, cut backs in public health spending contribute to the structural decline of public health systems. In addition, privatization of healthcare systems, without appropriate guarantees of universal access to affordable healthcare, further reduces healthcare availability.

A 2008 WHO report documented vast differences in healthcare between rich and poor countries, within countries, and sometimes within individual cities. Only 20 percent of the world's population has adequate social security coverage, and more than half lack any coverage at all. Less than 10 percent of workers in the least-developed countries are covered by social security. In middle-income countries, coverage ranges from 20 to 60 percent, while in most industrial nations, it is close to 100 percent. However statistical data on health are often not systematically collected, disaggregated, and analyzed by age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Relatively little is known about how social and economic factors affect the health of women (in particular, women with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual or transgender women, and women from ethnic minorities, all of whom face multiple discriminations). Medical research and epidemiological studies in many countries are often based solely on males, or are not gender specific.

Health Insurance and Women

Transcript

• Happy to get out, it’s nice to feel good and to kind of look good and not look sick anymore without the hair. I was excited to get my hair done for the first time tonight for an event, so it really feels good to be out and feeling good and to be energized more than anything.
• You have a very interesting story, a very touching story, but you also have a mission. Tell me about it.
• Sorry I got cracked up, teared up a couple of times tonight already. My mission really is to educate the general population, medical communities – because I was misdiagnosed initially with stage IV metastatic breast cancer because of my age – and the insurance companies. A lot of people out there don’t realize that younger women under the age of 40 are misdiagnosed with breast cancer because of the age, how young we are, and because we don’t fit the profile for what a breast cancer diagnosis typically has been. So, the doctors also need to be educated as well, because I had three doctors that unfortunately missed my breast cancer tumor, saying – even with an ultrasound, they said it wasn’t breast cancer. So, that led to Stage IV because it spread during that time. Insurance companies also need to be educated on this because they don’t cover women with mammograms unless they’re 40 or older. Well, what about us younger girls? That’s what I say. You know, I got this too, so…

Women use healthcare servivces, especially primary care services more often than men. This is mainly related to women's reproductive health and childbearing functions, but also to their persistent social roles as the primary caretakers of dependents, whether children or other family members. In spite of this higher level of use by women, healthcare systems and services are not particularly women-friendly or considerate toward women's health needs.

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