Framing Health Care Debate As Battle Of Sexes

Here's another reminder that health care reform is about affordable health care. It is not about illegal aliens, or death panels, or the communist plot to fluoridate the water, or who can shout the loudest.This story from NPR covers the disparity in the cost of health insurance between men and women.Recently I've been asked to participate in a dialog about the rise in racism and how to make more people aware of how destructive and dangerous racism is in our society. Hand-in-hand with racism is discrimination.Are the dramatically higher premiums for women's healthcare insurance a case of discrimination? The term used by the insurance companies is called "gender indexing" according to Liz Halloran's story on NPR. Gender indexing is used by insurance companies to set premiums. Halloran explains, "Historically, it has disproportionately affected women who buy plans in the individual insurance market, and, to a lesser degree, those who participate in some group plans." Perhaps this is not direct discrimination, but it may be indirect discrimination according to a definition at Equality Diversity Services a company committed to providing training in the workplace and developing a change in organization culture in the UK. According to their definition, "This includes practices which might look fair but which have discriminatory side effects. It applies when an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice disadvantages members of a specified group relative to others." Charging 86% more for Women's health insurance would seem to put younger women at a disadvantage.