9 Reasons Women Should Care About This Election

By Sue Hornik, October 14, 2020 —Why should women care about this election? Because, love it or hate it, the Affordable Care Act, which both Zeldin and Barrett oppose, ended the ability of insurance companies to treat women like second-class citizens.

#1 — Because of the health insurance reform ushered in by the ACA, women can no longer be charged more than men for the same coverage. (Women on the individual market used to pay up to 48% more in premium costs than men.)

#2 — Women can no longer be denied coverage because we’re pregnant.

#3 — We can no longer be charged more because we’ve been pregnant or have had a C-section (formerly considered pre-existing conditions by some states).

#4 —A woman cannot be denied coverage, or charged more, because she’s been the victim of domestic violence.

#5 — Insurers now must now cover maternity care, a fundamental need to ensure mothers and babies are healthy.

#6 —Insurers must cover key preventive services that are critical to maintaining women’s basic health, without charging co-pays, like mammograms, pap smears, and blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol testing.

#7 —Insurers can no longer drop us when we get sick or exorbitantly increase costs.

#8 —Insurers can no longer drop us when we reach some arbitrary lifetime dollar limit, a hugely important benefit for women because we tend to live much longer than men.

#9 —Young women can now stay on their family health policies until their 26th birthdays even if they don’t live at home, which is especially important if they have chronic asthma or severe allergies or become pregnant and are just starting their careers in low paying jobs.

Such basic health care should not be partisan but it sadly is. Amy Coney Barrett has consistently written opinions against the Affordable Care Act. Congressman Lee Zeldin has repeatedly voted against it and voted in favor of denying women many of the benefits we now value so much.

So if you want to protect your healthcare and the healthcare of the women you love, vote!