by Lisa Codispoti, Senior Counsel, National Women's Law Center

As we’ve discussed here many times before, gender rating is the harmful and discriminatory insurance practice of charging individuals and employers different premiums based on gender.

For individuals buying coverage directly from insurance companies on the individual market, we found that women were often charged higher premiums than men. In the group market – where businesses obtain health insurance to offer their employees, gender rating affects the overall premium that a business pays, as insurers often determine a group’s premium based in part on the gender makeup of the business.i Thus, businesses with a predominately female workforce, such as child care providers, visiting nurse associations, and even some smaller school districts, face significantly higher health insurance premiums. How much more? One such employer with a predominantly female workforce estimated that, due to gender rating, her annual premiums were $2,000 higher per employee.ii Due to these higher premiums, gender rating may ultimately lead employers to forgo offering coverage to workers altogether, or shift a greater share of health insurance costs to employees.

While the House health reform bill would completely eliminate gender rating for individuals and businesses, the Senate bill would only eliminate gender rating for individuals and small businesses with up to 100 employees. Unless a state decides – in 2017 – to allow larger employers buy coverage in the new insurance exchanges and thus be subject to these new premium rules, insurance companies will still be allowed to charge larger businesses higher premiums based on the gender makeup of their workforce.

When final health reform passes, we want to be able to say that gender rating will end. Period. No exceptions, no asterisks. Not kind of, not sort of. Unless the final health reform bill reflects the House language, we won’t be able to say that. Tell your members of Congress that the final reform bill must eliminate gender rating for all individuals and employers as the House bill does. Period.

And for more information, download NWLC's new fact sheet: Close Insurance Company Loopholes: End Gender Rating in All Health Insurance Markets.

(i) National Association of Health Underwriters, Consumer Guide to Group Health Insurance 1, http://www.nahu.org/consumer/groupinsurance.cfm (last visited July 16, 2008)

(ii) Jenny Gold, Fight Erupts Over Health Insurance Rates For Businesses With More Women, Kaiser Health News, Oct. 25, 2009. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/October/23/gender-discrimination-health-insurance.aspx

Cross-posted from Womenstake.