Tina Tchen, Small Businesses, and Why Women Everywhere Should Care About Health Care Reform

Overall awesome feminist, Tina Tchen (Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement) just posted on the White House blog about health care and small businesses as they pertain to women's realities.

I love this post. First, because Tina Tchen is totally one of my sheroes (term borrowed from Tania - thanks!), and I LOVE the fact that the post is based on a roundtable she hosted with Secretary Sebelius at one of my favorite DC small businesses, StitchDC.

Second, I think Ms. Tchen gives us something to really sink our teeth into as feminists. We hear about health care reform and the failures of our health care system on the news all the time. I'm guilty of rolling my eyes when yet ANOTHER talking head starts to drone on about the subject. But I shouldn't, and I'm publicly promising - here and now - to do better.

Why? Because while we hear the words "Health Care Reform" regularly, as a feminist it upsets me that we don't as frequently hear about the disproportionate impact that these failures have on women or the obstacles that small business-owning women face.

According to a report released last week by the Department of Health and Human Services:

• less than half of women are able to obtain health insurance coverage through their work
• women of reproductive age are subject to higher premiums than their male counterparts (up to 150% for 22 year olds!)
• class and social status seem to have a lot to do with whether women are able to afford individual insurance plans or obtain insurance another way (e.g., through a spouse's plan)

Inequitable access to health care is a feminist issue, and health care reform should be, too. We should be seeking a fundamental change in our system of health care that encourages preventative care, makes health care accessible to all (regardless of gender, age, sexuality, marital status and/or socioeconomic class).

In her blog post, Ms. Tchen discusses the stories of some of the small women business owners she met with.

"We were joined by 7 women small business owners who explained firsthand how skyrocketing costs are making it nearly impossible for small businesses to provide health care benefits for employees and their families. Marie Connolly, who owns Stitch, discussed how difficult it was to lose employees because she was not able to offer them health care coverage. As is the case with many small business owners, Ms. Connolly was forced to choose between not providing health care insurance for her employees in order to remain competitive, or providing such benefits and risk going out of business altogether."

We can rail against corporate America all we want, but is it any surprise that in an economic crisis, people choose to work for big businesses if small, independent businesses are unable to provide benefits? Sure, we all love our indy coffee shops, but if I was an uninsured woman, or had a family to be responsible for, etc.. I can see how the benefits package at Starbucks might be more enticing. (Now, whether the coffee is tolerable or not is a completely different issue..)

The point is, for our sake and the sake of small businesses we love, we should all care about health care reform. Check out the Government's website here: HealthReform.gov to view reports and see updates. Contact your legislators and let them know you support reform, how it will alleviate difficulties for small business owners, and why equitable access to health care is important to YOU.

We hope to see movement on this in the near future, but the critical thing to remember is that such a fundamental shift in the way things are done will require a lot of work. It's incumbent upon us to keep an eye out for it, to speak up when we're concerned, and to take a stand.

As always, please comment below with your thoughts and responses!

Image source: Roadblocks to Health Care

What a start to NYWLC!

The 2009 National Young Women’s Leadership Conference has started off incredibly! The opening plenary has just finished up – I cried, I laughed, I cheered. You could feel the energy in the room as we had the opportunity to hear from some of our country’s most influential women!

If you missed it, here are some highlights:

- Dolores Huerta, confounder of the United Farm Workers and current president and founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, spoke about her close work with the new Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. She specifically recollected Solis’ campaign for the California state legislature and their work with women workers in Juarez, Mexico.

- Solis took the stage and energized the audience, reminding us that there is a place at the table for everyone and that young women need to keep the fight going until we see all discrimination ended. She talked about a plethora of issues ranging from increasing the number of women in math and science to sex trafficking to the importance of unions to green jobs and the economy. She challenged women everywhere to take leadership, step up, and speak out in many forums.

- Feminist Majority Foundation President Ellie Smeal moderated the opening plenary and revved up the crowd by listing off some of the great victories for women since President Obama took office, such as:

o The repeal of the Global Gag Rule
o Passage and signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act 2009
o Passage and signing of the Omnibus Spending Act of 2009 that included a provision to restore subsidized birth control pricing to low-income and college campus clinics and also a provision that released money held up by the Bush Administration for seven years that withheld authorized funds from the United Nations Population Fund for women’s maternal health.
o The creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls

- Tina Tchen, the Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls and the Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison gave some the details about what the new administration is doing for women and girls. She encouraged dialogue and engagement with the new administration on all topics by e-mailing public@who.eop.gov.

- Lilly Ledbetter gave first hand accounts of her experiences as a victim of pay discrimination – she was paid 30-40% less than her male counterparts for nearly 20 years as a manager at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. She underscored how the discrimination impacted not only her salary, but also her retirement savings, social security, and overtime pay. Ledbetter pursued her wage discrimination case all the way through to the Supreme Court, where she lost in a decision that gutted the Title V of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Fortunately, President Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – although it can’t help Lilly recoup her damages, it gives future women a chance to protect themselves from such discrimination.

Check out the opening plenary on UStream. Keep watching for new posts all weekend, and follow us on Twitter @feministcampus. Tweet your responses with the hash tag #NYWLC! Here’s to a happy feminist weekend!