November 23

Today in class we discussed the current state the nation’s health care and some of the updates that are currently being worked on. At first when I heard that we have to blog about it relating to our issues I thought that it would be slightly challenging. I was surprised though how quickly I was able to make a connection between gender and health care after watching the Colbert Report. One of the first things that were said was that women that had C-sections might not be eligible for health care because it’s considered a pre-existing condition. This really shocked me. Then I thought to myself – pregnancy is a major health concern, one that almost every woman goes through – some more than once, and is one that no man will ever have to deal with directly. Women are the ones that carry a baby for nine months and then spend time recovering (from the childbirth) while tending to the child. Pregnancy is an expensive procedure. Once a woman finds out she is pregnant she must seek several physicians to ensure that she and the baby are healthy. A lot of medical equipment is used for this since there are ultrasounds, and other various tests performed in order to find out how the baby is doing. All this costs money. An article posted on the parenting weekly website states that from the pregnancy test all the way through the delivery can cost anywhere from $6,800 to $10,600. Also, sometimes a C-section is necessary to ensure a safe delivery for both the mother and the child. If a C-section is considered a pre-existing condition a lot more women might not want to do it. This may turn out to be extremely harmful. For these reasons I thought that this video was completely absurd and unfair.