Big 3 Dems' Health Insurance Unfriendly to Women

I disagree with most everything in this article, but it does demonstrate that there are problems with the Democratic presidential candidates' programs. She tries to say it is the health care system that accounts for certain differences in statistics between countries. However, it could be the lifestyle of the culture that provides for better overall health of the population. The McDonald's phenomenon in America isn't the way of life in Europe yet.

She says that the single payor (government pays) is the only way. But she neglects to say that if the government pays, the government decides your treatment (not you or your doctor). She also neglects to say that (government pay) means YOU pay through taxes.

By Susan Feiner
WeNews commentator

The Big 3 Democratic contenders' health insurance plans all look alike to Susan Feiner. She sees triple versions of the same scheme to enrich the medical industrial complex at the expense of women. Only Dennis Kucinich gets her thumbs' up.

(WOMENSENEWS)--So who's got the most women-friendly health care plan?

Is it Hillary, Obama or Edwards?

Answer: none of the above.

Only Dennis Kucinich offers what women really need: single-payer, universal health care.

To the others I have one question: Why are you ignoring over 50 years of experience in our peer nations, which show that the public provision of health care delivers far better results at far lower costs?

The national disparities in women's deaths between the United States and countries such as Canada, France and Germany are horrendous.

In the United States there are 77 female deaths from heart disease per 100,000 women, according to current World Health Organization data. In Germany that first key number is 68; in Canada 54; in France 21. For pulmonary disease the U.S. performance is even worse. The rate per 100,000 in the United States is 33; in Canada 13. In France and Germany it's 7.

But universal health insurance does more than fight the diseases that afflict women. By extending better coverage and care to everyone it goes to the heart of women's major inequity: our lower work-force participation due to the time we spend taking care of the preschoolers, sick kids, elderly parents and disabled spouses.

Women's wages are often reported to be about 80 percent of men's. But that figure seriously understates the actual loss of earnings due to gender and caretaking. The 2004 report "Still a Man's Labor Market" by the Women's Institute for Policy Research puts the gap closer to 60 percent.

But the proposals by the Big 3 will not stop women from being the ones to leave work--or not even attempt it at all--when the health care system breaks down.