Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of health care reform on behalf of greater access to health care for women. I am very grateful to Senator Mikulski for her extraordinary leadership on this health care debate.

There are few Americans who are not hurt by the rising cost of health care. However, it is shocking to think that in today's America, over half of this country could be discriminated against in one of their most basic life needs. Women must shoulder the worst of the health care crisis, including outrageous discriminatory practices in care and coverage.

According to the data compiled by the National Women's Law Center, under the current system, a 25-year-old woman pays up to 45 percent more for the same or identical coverage.

Some of the most essential services required by women are not covered by many insurance plans, such as childbearing, Pap smears, or mammograms. As a mother of two young children, I cannot imagine how awful it would be for a woman who does not have these basic needs covered. That is exactly what millions of women and young mothers face because of the costs of childbirth.

A standard in-hospital delivery costs between $5,000 and $10,000 and much more if there are complications. In the current system, pregnant women can be turned down for health care coverage because insurance companies would rather evade those costs. Pregnancy should never be a preexisting condition. Such discrimination is unacceptable and is contrary to our core American values of equality and equal rights.

As we address the inadequacies of our current system, we must safeguard the women's health clinics that are an essential point of care for millions across this country. Their work is being politicized as part of this debate. Politicizing health care delivery endangers young women, putting them at risk for teen pregnancy, STDs, cervical, or breast cancer. Women's health clinics provide critical services to women every day.

In my own State, over 400,000 New Yorkers receive health care from Planned Parenthood each year. About 50 percent are working adults whose jobs do not include health benefits. Our strategy for reform must protect these critical services that clinics provide and expand upon their success.

The health care crisis is a life-and-death issue for so many Americans--one that disproportionately affects women in this country. We must reform our broken health care system and disparities among race and gender and make quality, affordable health care available for every single American.

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