Starting Tuesday, Nationwide SEIU Events Will Highlight How McCain Care Leaves Women and Families Behind

WASHINGTON, DC - With health care costs rising out of control, more and more Americans are finding it impossible to keep up. Women, 90 percent of whom shoulder the health care responsibility for their families, are in particular feeling the strain.

WASHINGTON, DC - With health care costs rising out of control, more and more Americans are finding it impossible to keep up. Women, 90 percent of whom shoulder the health care responsibility for their families, are in particular feeling the strain.

Beginning Tuesday, August 19, SEIU members will hold a series of events across the country highlighting how John McCain's health care proposals put moms last. Events are planned in Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, and Missouri - with a flagship event featuring SEIU Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger and Congressman John Dingell on Thursday, August 21 in Michigan.

As the primary caregivers in most families, it is women who make the doctors' appointments, track the medications, and pay the bills. But instead of providing a comprehensive solution to the health care crisis, John McCain's health care plan would make it harder to get affordable health care - particularly for women.

Senator McCain's plan would:

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  Force families to try to find coverage on the private market, where coverage costs far more - especially for women, with insurance companies charging women more through "gender rating"and refusing to cover pregnancy, labor, and neo-natal costs;

  
  

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  Let insurance companies refuse coverage or charge exorbitant rates for people with preexisting conditions - which would disproportionately hurt women. Women are more likely to have chronic illnesses like diabetes -McCain's plan would let insurance companies refuse coverage for these women, as well as millions of women who have suffered from breast, cervical, or other cancers.

  
  

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  Allow insurance companies to refuse coverage for maternity care, leaving women with tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs.

  
  

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  Let insurance companies evade state regulations - like coverage for mammograms and minimum maternity stays - that are designed to protect patients.

  
  

"It should come as no surprise that Senator McCain's proposals are so bad for women and families,"said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger. "After all this is a man who has voted nearly 40 times against health care for women, children, and seniors."

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DETAILS ON "MCCAIN CARE: PUTTING MOMS LAST"EVENTS FOLLOW:

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