The 12 West Virginia University students present at Women’s Day of Action for Health Care Reform were asked to make three phone calls to congressmen passing along their support for health care reform.
The 11 females and one male called Senators Robert C. Byrd, Jay Rockefeller and Representative Alan Mollohan and said they believe equal rights between men and women need to be established.
Barbara Fleischauer, West Virginia delegate, and Erin Beck, president of WVU’s Young Democrats, brought up issues women face with health care Wednesday in the Mountainlair Laurel Room.
"We struggle to find coverage in what we need," Beck said. "We’re more likely to report problems, seek mental health care and screenings, and we are punished for these things."
Beck addressed three main issues throughout the health care debate: affordability, accessibility and comprehensiveness.
The fact women are punished for preventing and maintaining healthy habits like using birth control was one thing Beck stressed. Women use it not just as a contraceptive, she said, but as a medicine to help many menstrual symptoms like Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. The price of birth control has increased too, she added, and even WVU’s Student Health Services can only provide generic brands in limited supply.
Beck and Fleishchauer handed out statistics from the National Women’s Law Center and a 20-question trivia to get students to acknowledge the discrimination faced by women in health care.
The NWLC statistics showed 90 percent of West Virginia health care policies exclude maternity coverage because of high prices.
"Heart disease is really expensive to treat, and we don’t exclude that," Fleischauer said.
Health insurance discrimination against women in West Virginia "shocked" Fleishchauer when she learned that 70 percent of the best-selling plans in West Virginia charged non-smoking 40-year-old women more than men. Nothing more can explain this than discrimination, she said.
"We permit, in the state of West Virginia, to charge higher rates," Fleischauer said. "It is specifically permitted in the laws."
Calling the congressmen allowed the students to help make a difference and force a change against the discrimination, Beck said.
"Congress people represent us," Beck said. "Us includes women, and they have to know our views."
Beck hopes students will influence people to help the cause because she believes WVU students can strengthen the push for change.
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