http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/2009/03/24/colorado-hb-1224-passes-senate/ Research and discussion of the Colorado health insurance industry and the healthcare crisis in America. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:19:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/2009/03/24/colorado-hb-1224-passes-senate/comment-page-1/#comment-13080 Clifton Shannon Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:59:29 +0000 http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/?p=1056#comment-13080 Health insurance underwriting practices assign the entire cost of childbirth to females. The reasoning is, more or less, that pregnancy is a disease/condition that only females contract. The shock claims attending problem pregnancies and births are major underwriting concerns and account for virtually all of the signficant health care utilization differences. That is, the relatively steady lifelong use of preventive and routine health care services by women -- and generally not by men -- is offset (actually, more than offset) by the often preventable major illnesses that eventually befall middle-aged and older men at higher rates than women (see heart attacks, strokes, etc.). How unfair is the notion that part of the costs associated with childbirth ought to be assigned to men? Health insurance underwriting practices assign the entire cost of childbirth to females. The reasoning is, more or less, that pregnancy is a disease/condition that only females contract. The shock claims attending problem pregnancies and births are major underwriting concerns and account for virtually all of the signficant health care utilization differences. That is, the relatively steady lifelong use of preventive and routine health care services by women — and generally not by men — is offset (actually, more than offset) by the often preventable major illnesses that eventually befall middle-aged and older men at higher rates than women (see heart attacks, strokes, etc.). How unfair is the notion that part of the costs associated with childbirth ought to be assigned to men?

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