Health & Justice Now for Women & Families

ACTION ALERT!

Health & Justice Now!
California Women & Communities Demanding
Health Care for All!

Please join California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ) and ACCESS/Women's Health Rights Coalition (ACCESS) in fighting to ensure health care reform legislation addresses the needs of women of color, low-income women and their families.  At this critical moment in the national health reform debates, it is imperative that California women and communities raise our voices to demand that health care reform ensures affordable health coverage is available to all Californians, and that it includes comprehensive reproductive health services.

Sign-On NOW to the following petition in order to advance reproductive justice for women and girls in California and across the country by following the link below or by e-mailing Cristina Valle at CLRJ (cristina.clrj@gmail.com) by Friday, August 28th.

Health & Justice Now! Sign-On Form

Health care reform is a matter of reproductive justice.  The current health care system is failing low-income women and women of color, including immigrant women, who have the least access to health services and experience a disproportionate amount of reproductive health disparities.  Access to health insurance is critical in addressing reproductive and overall health disparities.  Health care reform legislation must help eliminate these health inequities, and thus advance the reproductive health and justice of women of color and their communities.

Your voice matters!
Please sign on today.

 

HEALTH & JUSTICE NOW! PETITION CONTINUES BELOW

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, write to support health care reform efforts that will ensure health coverage is available to all Californians, is affordable, and provides comprehensive health benefits, including the broad spectrum of reproductive health services.  The current health care system is failing low-income women and women of color, including immigrant women, who have the least access to health services and experience a disproportionate amount of reproductive health disparities.  As such, we urge Members of the California Congressional Delegation to pass health care reform that will address the challenges low-income women and women of color face to improve their reproductive and overall health.

To address the needs of low-income women, women of color and their families, health care reform legislation must ensure the following:

  • Health coverage must include comprehensive reproductive health services.

In order to promote the health and well-being of women, their families and communities, any standard of care and benefits adopted must include access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion services.  Strong data demonstrates that reproductive health care is a key factor in women's overall health.  Reproductive health care cannot be politicized and singled out for exclusion from the private or public health insurance plans and coverage.  As such, private insurance companies must create plans which do not leave out coverage for specific care, such as maternity or abortion services.  Decisions about which benefits will be covered by national health reform should be made by an independent body that includes consumers and medical experts, using professionally established standards of care, not by members of Congress.

Additionally, it is extremely important that standards of care protect patients' rights and access to care.  Health reform must ensure adequate numbers of willing providers for all health services as well as adequate measures to ensure that patients receive needed care in a timely manner, without undue delay or obstruction by objecting health providers.

  • Health coverage must be accessible to all persons residing in the United States.

A thriving society includes a health system where every individual and family is equally able to access quality care.  Guaranteeing access to health coverage requires that everyone be eligible regardless of a person's age, gender, marital status, geography, family composition, economic status, employment, pre-existing conditions, health status, sexuality, immigrant status, or any other category.  In order to advance equity, the resulting legislation must neither prohibit any group from obtaining health coverage nor burden any group unfairly.

Leaving a class of uninsured residents is unjust and bad public policy.  For California in particular, the inclusion of immigrants is critical to our state's economic survival.  One in four Californians is an immigrant, representing a much higher percentage than the United States as a whole (27% vs. 13%).[1]  Of those, over 5 million are women.[2]  Overall, immigrants are less likely to be insured compared to citizens, yet they are a very small percentage of the uninsured.  In fact, the majority (76%-80%) of the growth in the number of uninsured from 2000 to 2006 occurred among U.S. citizens.[3]  Immigrants are part of our communities, pay taxes, and want to pay their fair share and receive affordable coverage like every other American.  Thus, it is critical for California that the resulting health care reform policies implemented include everyone residing in the U.S., both as a common sense measure, and most importantly, as a matter of justice.

  • Health coverage must be affordable for women of color and their families.

Through this economic downturn, it has become increasingly evident how the health care system is out of reach for low-income women of color and their families.  Health care reform needs to offer health care coverage that is affordable for individuals and families in relation to income alone.  Women of color are concentrated in low-wage and/or part-time jobs that do not offer health coverage at all or offer coverage that is too costly.  Overall, eight out of ten uninsured women are in working families.[4]  While low-income women comprise the majority of uninsured women, lack of coverage affects women of all income levels.  Nearly one-quarter of uninsured women have family incomes at or above 300% of the Federal Poverty Level.[5]

Given these circumstances, affordability entails the following:

· Expanding Medicaid eligibility in order for more low-income women to qualify for coverage and access health care.

·A subsidy program that is adequate to allow everyone, both low and middle-income women, to afford health insurance.  Given California's high cost of living, making subsidies available to those earning up to 500% FPL would be more fairly inclusive.

·Broad eligibility for family coverage in order for all families to qualify.  If one individual in a household is eligible for health insurance, coverage should be extended to the entire household.

· Continued funding to strengthen the underfunded safety-net providers-such as community health centers, public hospitals and clinics- which serve both the insured and uninsured.  One-third of women who are uninsured and four in ten women receiving Medi-Cal rely on safety-net providers as their main source of care.[6]

·A public plan that would expand coverage for the uninsured and help control the rising cost of health care.

California Congressional Leaders must pass health care reform now that ensures affordable health coverage is available to all people living in the United States, and that includes comprehensive reproductive health services.  Women of color and their families simply cannot wait.

Healthy women who can participate fully in the workforce and in their communities are vital to the success of their families and our society.  We must, therefore, make investments in health care that enable girls and women, along with their families and communities, to lead productive, healthy lives.  Health care reform needs to take low-income women, immigrant women, and women of color into account by eliminating the challenges these communities face in accessing quality, affordable, culturally competent, comprehensive health care.  The time is now to create lasting change that will allow women and their communities to thrive.

 

References

[1] Public Policy Institute of California. "Just the Facts: Immigrants in California," June 2008 ("Immigrants in California"). See: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/jtf/JTF_ImmigrantsJTF.pdf.

[2] U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey; S0501. Selected Characteristics of the Native and Foreign-Born Populations.

[3] Immigrants in California.

[4] California Health Interview Survey, 2003, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Available at: www.chis.ucla.edu

[5] National Women's Law Center. "Women in California Need Health Reform."  See: http://www.nwlc.org/reformmatters/pdf/CaliforniaHCRfactsheet.pdf.

[6] UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Women's Health in California: Health Status, Health Behaviors, Health Insurance Coverage and Use of Services Among California Women Ages 18-64, August 2008, at 7.  See: www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu.