Analysts urge Democrats to tailor health reform pitch to women

Politico reports that provisions addressing women's concerns about health care may help Democrats build public support for their overhaul plans and grease the passage of a bill.

"Maternity care would be guaranteed. Insurance companies could no longer charge higher premiums for women than men. And insurers now allowed to label a Cesarean section or even domestic violence a pre-existing condition to deny coverage would be barred from the practice."

Women typically make most of a family's health decisions and are in general more supportive of changes to the system, Politico reports. "But in a surprise to Democratic strategists, polls find women are not much more likely than men to support health care reform" (Budoff Brown, 10/19).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.