Health Care For America Now

A recent analysis by the Commonwealth Fund shows that women experience cost-related health access barriers at higher rates than their male counterparts. These new findings echo those of a similar study conducted by the National Women’s Law Center and the Commonwealth Fund two years ago. Though women are no more likely to be uninsured than men, they are more likely to skip or delay necessary health care because of cost, and they report more problems paying medical bills and with accrued medical debt. These inequities are a result of women’s lower incomes (in 2007, women earned 0.78 cents for every dollar men earned) and the fact that they need and use more health care than men. Women’s responsibility for their children’s health care is an additional factor, as women with medical debt or bill problems are more likely than their male counterparts to be single with children.

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