Obama, Sen. Snowe Discuss Women's Health Needs As Part Of NBC's 'A Woman's Nation' Series

NBC News recently aired a series called "A Woman's Nation" looking at the findings of "The Shriver Report," a collaboration between California first lady Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress that examines the shift in gender roles in the American work force. Wednesday's segment of the series featured an interview with President Obama, who said that when he is making policy decisions, he is "constantly thinking about how can we strengthen families, how can we provide more resources, greater flexibility, so that women can thrive." He added that he thinks "if women are thriving, everybody's going to be thriving" (Guthrie, "Nightly News With Brian Williams," NBC, 10/21).

An interview with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was included for a segment on women and health care reform. When asked about addressing the practice of gender rating -- charging women more for the same coverage as men -- in the private health insurance market, Snowe said it is "critical" to restructure the private market so women who work for small businesses or are self-employed "have access to more affordable health care." Snowe also emphasized the need to reduce medical costs in the U.S., adding that thousands of people lose their health coverage annually. The situation is "a crisis that's only going to get worse over time," she said, adding that "in the short term, we are seeing double-digit [cost] increases ... and that will only grow exponentially worse." Higher health care costs "will be detrimental to women and their children, without question, because they are the first one[s] who bear the brunt of ... rising health care costs," Snowe said (Mitchell, MSNBC, 10/21).

Another segment in the series focused on the role of women as caregivers to their families and included comments from Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center. Women continue to "carry the overwhelming burden of dealing with family needs," and they are "often the deciders of health care not only for themselves and their children, but also of elderly parents or relatives," Greenberger said. NBC News Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman reports that women caregivers are twice as likely to have chronic health conditions as noncaregivers but are less likely to have health insurance. They also face higher insurance rates than men in some states, "and it's taking a toll," Snyderman reports. "Women are more likely to go into bankruptcy because of unpaid medical bills than men," Greenberger said. She added that women "scrimp so that they can put food on the table for their kids," and will do things like avoid filling prescriptions to save money (Snyderman, NBC News, 10/21).

In conjunction with the series, MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" also featured an interview with Shriver about the report. During her appearance on the program, Shriver discussed the role of women in the workplace, their home environments and as caregivers to their families. "Women are using their voices to demand changes in the workplace and from their government," Shriver said. She added, "They're not going to accept gender discrimination in health care. I thought it was great to see Olympia Snowe, a Republican woman, be so forceful this past week in the debate," when she became the first Republican to vote for a health reform bill (Matthews, "Hardball with Chris Matthews," MSNBC, 10/19).


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