Correspondent: Health Care Reform Shouldn’t Cut Benefits

Health Care Reform Shouldn't Cut Benefits
Editor, Times-Dispatch: It is plain to see that a reform in health care is necessary. More and more people are losing their jobs and, in turn, losing their health benefits. Having to decide if something is serious enough to go to the doctor should not have to be an issue.

Another thing that should not have to be an issue is a woman's reproductive health. Ever since I graduated from college, I have counted on Planned Parenthood as my primary source of reproductive health care. I do not have insurance and it offers the most affordable methods of contraception I can find. I also count on them for my annual exam.

There are so many young women out there like me who do not have health benefits or insurance and are comforted in the fact that there is actually a place for them to go that will not break the bank.

Women of childbearing age spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, in part because of reproductive health-related needs. So why is Congress trying to single out women's health care as a sticking point in reform?

Our current situation serves women poorly, so we should not be worse off after health care reform than we are today. Our needs differ from men's and our reproductive concerns (i.e., contraception as well as pregnancy and childbirth) need more medical attention. If women's health care benefits are reduced, we would lose these opportunities as well as preventive care such as cancer screenings and our annual exams.

Times are definitely tough but we, as women, should not have to suffer even more because of limited access to health care services.

If reproductive health is left out of the health care reform, where will it put the millions of women who rely on places like Planned Parenthood as their only opportunity to see a doctor? I, for one, would be at a loss.

Jennifer Lane.
Richmond.