Have you ever heard of gender rating? I hadn't. Well, not until I found myself without health insurance and searching for information on a topic that had never been all that important before; ah, such a luxury when one is either covered under a parental plan, covered under a student plan, or laboring away in an underpaid and overworked entry level job that happens to provide benefits. When I moved into freelance course writing and research it was, in some ways, very freeing. But that doesn't pay for flu shots, dentistry, Ortho Evra, and all of those other things that you never noticed were covered--until they weren't.
While shopping for health insurance isn't exactly super fun time, the silver lining in this cloud is that health care is somewhat of an en vogue topic these days. Okay, that's an understatement, I know. But what I'm reading isn't very pretty. So...back to gender rating--or, "my vagina is a pre-existing condition." The National Women's Law Center has a new report on women and health care. NWLC reports that not only do 95% of plans include gender rating--charging more for the plan simply because the applicant is female--but 25 year old women are charged as much as 84% more than men their age. Plans that don't even include maternity coverage! In fact, only 13% of individual plans for 30 year old women include maternity coverage. Furthermore, injuries resulting from domestic violence and/or rape can be considered pre-existing conditions.
So there it is. The fabulous catch-22 of being young, female, and uncovered. If you don't want to be pregnant and/or don't feel like you have the resources to carry a child to term, chances are you'll have to drive hundreds of miles just to find a doctor who will help you. If you do want to have a healthy pregnancy and carry a baby, chances are you'll have to pay twice as much (if not more) just to have access to an OBGYN and a hospital and if you can't afford that...well, it's really overwhelming and makes you wonder if you have the resources to carry a child to term.
So, to reiterate: My vagina is not a pre-existing condition.
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