Survey Finds Many Women Still Face Affordability and Access to Health Care Challenges

A new survey of women from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that coverage rates for women are at all-time highs, but many women still face affordability and access challenges.

In 2013, nearly one in five women were uninsured. In 2017, after the Affordable Care Act was implemented, that number dropped to one in ten. Nationally, more than 60 percent of women were insured through private insurance. 14 percent of women were insured through Medicaid. More than a third of West Virginians – male and female – are on Medicaid.

However about a third of patients with private insurance and Medicaid reported their plan would not cover a particular prescription medicine, or they had to pay a very expensive co-pay to obtain it.

Women also reported other barriers to accessing care outside of the health care system, such as workplace benefits and flexibility, childcare, and transportation.

The survey was conducted in 2017 and included a nationally representative sample of nearly 2,800 women ages 18 to 64.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.