The issue evening at HQ went very well Wednesday night--about 15 people came to talk about women's issues and our health care crisis. We were concerned about equal pay for equal work so women who are heading up a family can have a good quality of life and healthy children. People spoke about raising the minimum wage to help working families, and providing health care coverage that is affordable to all. We were concerned about keeping abortions safe, available and a rare thing. Planned Parenthood was mentioned as a positive group that provides education and health care to keep unwanted pregnancies from happening. And finally stopping violence against women in families, the workplace, and military was seen as a pressing need.
Broadly, the group valued how much women contribute to families and the community--we provide much of the hidden work that won't show up in the GDP and so often doesn't get counted. This is work critical to the successful function of families and communities.
Barack Obama agrees with our concerns and has the right plan for making women's lives more prosperous, secure, and empowered. His full issue paper on health care is available here and see his whole program on women's issues by clicking here.
For a brief summary of his positions, click the "Read More" link.
Women's issues are many in Barack Obama's plan for America. He sees the connection between the health care crisis and the effects on women who are more likely than men to delay or not get medical care. His plan recognizes the quadrupling of HIV/AIDs among women during the past 20 years. He supports the unique research needed to examine gender and health disparities in treatments and types of research.
Barack Obama supports the right to choose, and also will put resources into preventing unintended pregnancies. He has a strong concern for domestic violence and will strengthen programs for women and laws to ensure the safety of women.
Another concern is getting pay equity for women for equal work. He will support women-owned businesses, and promote women pursuing education in math and science. He also supports a raise of the minimum wage.
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Barack Obama Thursday Issues Health Care and Women's Issues
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Dale Klemme Wednesday on Health Care and Women's Issues
Dale Klemme is running for State Assembly (District 96) and has a firm commitment to making health care affordable and accessible to all Wisconsin citizens.
He believes any discussion of health care reform and ensuring comprehensive health care needs to include women's health. We must ensure that women of all ages, from young girls, to women of childbearing age, to older women have access to the type of specific health care they need, regardless of income or employment. Here are more of his views on the subject from his position_paper:
We can find an affordable health care program that will provide coverage to every Wisconsin resident. To do so, it will take courageous individuals who will stand up to the powerful forces of lobbyists and institutions with virtually unlimited money and whose primary objective is to ‘preserve the status quo’ or ‘don’t rock the boat.’ As voters, you don’t send people to Madison to deal with the easy issues. You send them there to solve the real issues, concerns that are truly life or death.
In the last 10 months we have seen some serious discussion on this matter, after virtual silence for the prior 10 years. I stand for discussion and dialogue until the problem is solved.
Dale understands this will take time and negotiation, but he is on the right side of the issue and willing to put the hard work and time into making a solution for the good of the State and its people. He sees this as tax relief, economic development and clearly a priority of the people in this District.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Health Care Reform and Women's Issues
This week's election issue is actually two issues that are related--Health Care and the pressing needs of Women. The last legislatures at the State and Federal level failed to provide health care reform--affordable insurance for all citizens. And the "gender gap" continues to plague women at all levels of educational attainment. Within this gap is a lack of health insurance as employers opt out of providing this expensive benefit.
You can click "read more" for some background on these issues and stay tuned this week for more specifics from our candidates: Tara Johnson (Tuesday), Dale Klemme (Wednesday) and Barack Obama (Thursday).
There is also a Wednesday night (7 pm) issue evening at the HQ in Viroqua on these topics. See the Calendar for more info and dates. Come and talk about how these issues impact your life, and what we need communicate to our representatives at the State and Federal levels.
Health care reform
The last legislatures at the State and Federal level failed to provide health care reform--affordable insurance for all citizens. At the State level there was the Healthy_Wisconsin initiative to extend affordable health care insurance to working adults. This was part of the budget that the Senate passed, not part of the Assembly budget (Republican Assembly) and in the negotiations in the conference committee the provision was taken out. Legislation by negotiation.
The leaders pushing for this kind of comprehensive reform will again pursue the goal, but with listening ears for how to make it a successful bill. Funding the plan is part of the issue, but in reality this kind of comprehensive reform is the way to control costs and distribute risk. Small steps and increases in coverage via BadgerCare is helpful, but this successful part of the budget is little more than an expansion of Medicaid. To really help businesses and governments cope with rising costs (Vernon County is budgeting (2009) for an 18% increase in health insurance premium) we need something more.
The Gender Gap
The news on women is alarming and has been for years. The Institute for Women's Policy Research was quite critical of Wisconsin in a 2002_report that ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Among the findings, Wisconsin ranked:
-No. 45 in the wage gender gap. In 2002, Wisconsin women earned a median annual average of $28,100, just 71.1 percent of the wages of Wisconsin men. Nationwide, that percentage was 76.2 percent.
-No. 46 in the percentage of women in managerial and professional occupations (29.4 percent v. 35.5 percent nationwide in 2001).
-No. 28 in median annual full-time earnings for women (again, $28,100 v. $30,100 nationwide in 2002).
The Wisconsin_Women's_Council provided a press release on the Gender Wage Gap more recently (April 2008) and notes these statistics:
With a median hourly wage of $13.67 in 2006, Wisconsin women’s wages were about 22 percent lower than men’s. At this rate, a full-time, woman worker in the state would earn around $28,000 per year, on average, compared with over $36,500 for men.
For women ages 25-35, the 2006 median hourly wage of $13.89 was 15 percent below the men’s median for that age group. This despite the fact that the younger women’s median wage was slightly higher than the median wage for all women.
The good news for Wisconsin women may be that attaining a college degree pays off in increased wages and a slimmer wage gap. Even for young women with a college degree, however, the pay gap persists.
Men and Women alike should be concerned about equal pay for the same work. All of us contribute to family income, and that income is not keeping up with rising costs and increasingly troubled economic times.
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