Amid pink posters advocating for reproductive rights and stacks of papers detailing the benefits of comprehensive health care coverage, about 30 women banded together yesterday at an event meant to educate women about current health care disparities in the United States.
The event, titled “Addressing the Disparity: The Affordable Care Act, Women, and Communities of Color,” was a collaboration between Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan and the University’s Students for Choice activist group. Lindsay Maas, a field organizer for PPAM, said the forum was intended to provide a comfortable place for women to discuss health care issues and learn about the health care reforms.
“We want to be able to reframe the discourse around the Affordable Care Act and start to get messaging out in the communities that this is really beneficial,” Maas said.
The event featured a documentary called “A Vital Service,” which emphasized Planned Parenthood’s support for minority and low-income communities. Following the documentary, a panel comprised of community leaders, public health experts and reproductive rights advocates discussed the inadequate health care access that many minority women face.
Trudy Hall, program manager of the University of Michigan Health System’s Program for Multicultural Health, said health care options for minority women in Washtenaw County are limited.
“(For) most racial and ethnic minorities, we’re doing pretty bad on health statistics,” Hall said. “We just don’t have the resources.”
Anika Fassia, a policy analyst for the Michigan League for Human Services, said while minority women face the greatest health care disparities, the issue transcends race.
“Our fates are linked,” Fassia said. “Our next generations are going to be increasingly people of color … and that’s why you should care. It is your burden.”
After the panel, Wafa Dinaro, the Michigan Consumers for Healthcare communications director, emphasized the importance of several provisions in the health law. Specifically, she discussed the policy’s insurance exchange program, protection from annual or lifetime limits on care and its mandated increase in the number of premium dollars that insurance companies must put toward health care expenses.
“Starting this year, all insurance companies have to spend 80 percent of your premium dollars on health care needs,” Dinaro said. “If they don’t, at the end of the year, you will get a rebate check.”
Dinaro added that the Affordable Care Act will provide improved coverage for women and children.
“Women can no longer be charged more for just being women,” she said. “Maternity care must be covered starting 2014.”
Dinaro concluded her presentation by encouraging women to write their legislators about the importance of the law.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard three days of arguments regarding the constitutionality of the law, which is in question largely due to a provision that requires all Americans to obtain health insurance.
Maas said though this particular event was aimed at women, the ACA benefits men and women alike.
“Everyone has a mother,” Maas said. “A lot of people have daughters and sisters, and to deny women certain health care that men have is an injustice to all.”
Nursing student Kathryn Brieland-Shoultz said she attended the event to become better informed about health care issues.
“I’m in nursing school, and we’re focusing on social justice issues right now,” Brieland-Shoultz said. “I thought that Planned Parenthood, especially the community-based center, is a great resource and I just wanted to find out more.”