Consumer Plans and Gender: “Women, with rare exception, do not choose their
sex.” So write two doctors at Harvard Medical School who argue that
consumer-directed health care unfairly penalizes women for being women. Women,
they say, will end up having to pay more for their health care than men because
they have a greater need for more routine care, such as Pap tests, birth control
pills and routine breast exams. “Ladies, we lose,” write the authors, one of
whom is a man. “Not only do we … suffer the pain of childbirth, but it is also
expensive.”
The authors’ argument also applies to both men and women who suffer from
chronic illness or are older and require more care. Using federal data of more
than 33,000 people, the researchers say the median expense for men under age 45
in high-deductible plans is $463. Women, however, paid $1,266. This gap widens
as people get older. For men ages 45 to 65, the median health care cost was
$1,849; for women, it was $2,871.
Critics counter that the paper, which was published in March and uses data
from 2003, does not take into account preventive care coverage offered by
companies, which includes Pap tests and breast exams. To read the full paper, click here.
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