My Comment: This article appeared in a recent edition of a newsletter addressed to those of us who focus on employee benefits for corporate America. In spite of high unemployment numbers, many successful businesses cannot find enough people with the necessary skills to help them grow. Keeping the ones they do have is critical.

Across the country, most women work, either at home or wherever they are employed, assuming they can find a job. Those who get sick and have no insurance cause the rest of us to pay more. A better future for my children and grandchildren will result, directly or indirectly, from universal health care.

By Kathryn Mayer July 17, 2012

Women may be the big winners in the health reform game.

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund estimates that once fully implemented, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will cover nearly all women, reducing the uninsured rate among women from 20 percent to 8 percent.

Twenty percent of women in the United States—18.7 million—ages 19 to 64 were uninsured in 2010, up from 15 percent (12.8 million) in 2000, the report found. An additional 16.7 million women were underinsured in 2010, compared with 10.3 million in 2003.

“Women, particularly those in their childbearing years, are uniquely at risk for being unable to afford the care they need, having trouble with medical bills, and having high out-of-pocket costs,” says Commonwealth Fund Vice President and report co-author Sara Collins. “The Affordable Care Act will ensure that U.S. women have affordable, comprehensive health insurance that covers the services they need, including maternity care. And women will no longer have to worry about being denied coverage for a preexisting condition or that they will have to pay higher premiums because of their gender or health.”

Commonwealth Fund researchers examined differences in how women fare in the United States compared to women in 10 other countries—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.—all of which have universal health insurance coverage.

The report finds that while uninsured American women were most likely to face problems with medical bills and getting needed health care, even insured U.S. women were more likely to face these problems compared to women in other countries.

Women in the United States said they have problems paying medical bills at double the rate of women in any of the other countries. One-fourth of women in the U.S. ages 19–64 had medical bill problems, compared to 13 percent in Australia, 12 percent in France, and 4 percent in Germany.

Also, in 2009-2010, 40 percent of American women spent $1,000 or more on out-of-pocket medical costs and 43 percent said they went without recommended care. Only half said they were confident that they would be able to afford the health care they need if they became seriously ill.