|
President Barak Obama signed his first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, on January 29, 2009. This is an act making each incidence of unequal pay by gender unlawful and lengthening the time an employee has to file suit for unequal pay - an event significant to all women.
|
|
Paid Sick Leave Rally - A Huge Success! |
 |
The Paid Sick Leave rally and press conference on February 12th in the Nurses Hall at the State House was a huge success. The event started with an inspiring video by Phoebe Eng of the 1000 Voices Archive, which showed interviews highlighting diverse stories on the importance of Paid Sick Leave. This was followed by speakers Rep. Jason Lewis; Bob Hayes, President of the Mass. AFL-CIO; Rocio Saenz, President of SEIU 615; Mike Fadel, Executive VP of SEIU 1199; Betty McGuire, Member of ACORN and SEIU 615; Annia Lembert, member of UNITE HERE; and Kevin Miller from the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Kevin discussed the Institute's recent research, which shows that in the long run paid sick leave is more cost effective for employers than the costs of "presenteeism," workers coming to work sick. If you are interested in reading the report, Valuing Good Health in Massachusetts: The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days, click on the title or check the web site: http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/B269Exec.pdf
At the conclusion of the rally, coalition members in partnership with Mom's Rising delivered Valentine cookies to the legislators. These cookies were generously donated by Dancing Deer Baking Co., Roxbury, and had attached messages from constituents to the legislators. At this point, 76 Representatives and 19 Senators are co-sponsors of the bill. This is almost half of the legislature, so we are off to a good start!
Joan Ditzion
Eastern Mass OWL and liaison to the MA Paid Sick Leave Coalition.
Boston College Sloan Work and Family Research Network has produced a policy mini-brief on paid sick days. It is available at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102488975258&e=001pF2fZnI-8gs0nYwvUAajCM8ui7RMx-T4PTx95NqFKK2S8MBGD0PJ8wzwaFa1uDsKACPsPQtQpjq3_tyzQbJcZ8AgOcFJOFNaxUq_zSgc7ckn2lmV9aNQfoxMGgFbFW7y1hZ0NASd8DPmHZgCfe1OfQ==
|
|
News from National |
|
The new Board of Directors met for the first time at the end of January 2009. It is an enthusiastic board with many challenges ahead of it. First order of business was to elect a new slate of officers. The officers are Donna Wagner, President, Margaret Huyck, Vice President, Johnetta Marshall, Secretary, and Lilo Hoelzel-Seipp, treasurer. As you may know, OWL has a term limit provision in its by-laws which meant that six of us needed to rotate off the board and six new members came on the board. I will continue to attend board meetings as President Emeritus but pass the baton to the able hands of Donna Wagner.
It was a great privilege to serve as President of the Board at a very difficult time for OWL. I am happy to say that OWL ended 2008 with six months operating funds in the bank, a great staff, office space back in the District, and an active voice on both women and aging coalitions in Washington. This is both an exciting time and a worrisome time for our nation. We have a new President with many new ideas and great energy, but we are facing the worst economic times since the 1930's. President Obama has said it well when he encourages us that with great challenge comes great opportunity. We must be there to take advantage of the opportunity.
OWL is working on health care reform which is high on President Obama's agenda. We are advocating a Medicare model for all people as outlined in our 2007 Mother's Day Report, Give 'em Health Revisited: Medicare for All. We are also aware that Medicare and Social Security cuts are back on the table and women's voices must be heard to protect two of the most valuable programs to seniors in our history. Sign up for the national alerts to keep up with what you can do by joining our mailing list at the National OWL website. This year promises to be interesting. Let's also make it progressive and productive.
Ellen Bruce
President Emeritus, National OWL
|
|
Legislative Update |
|
Due to the change in the office of Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Rep. Salvatore DiMasi to Rep. Robert DeLeo, the Legislature has had very little activity for the past few weeks. Although more than 6,000 bills have been filed for consideration in the 2009-2010 session, the House met for a total of 27 minutes, while the Senate met for 10 minutes during the week of Feb. 23-27, 2009.
The Elder Caucus met for the 2009-2010 bill signing event on Monday, January 12th, and signed on to 34 bills concerning elder issues. Although the Elder Caucus did not meet in February, two important lobby days did take place at the State House in Nurses Hall. A rally and press conference in support of An Act Establishing Paid Sick Days (House Bill 1815) was held on Feb.12th, and the bill has been filed for consideration in the 2009-2010 session of the Legislature. On Feb.26th, Home Care Lobby Day was held to urge the Legislature to implement the Equal Choice Act. Hundreds of people from across the state rallied at the State House to end the waiting list for home care. More than 954 senior citizens are on that waiting list, and the Legislature needs to implement the "Long Term Care Options" counseling program statewide as soon as possible.
Speaker DeLeo has appointed Rep. Alice Wolf as Chair of the Elder Affairs Committee and Rep Barbara L'Italien, Elder Caucus Co-Chair, as Co-Chair of House Ways and Means Committee.
At the end of January former State Representative, Michael Festa, stepped down as Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, a position he held since Fall 2007. This role has been temporarily filled by Ellie Shea-Delaney, former interim Secretary.
Kay Maguire
|
|
Gender Discrimination Costs Women in Health Insurance |
|
In the year 2007, 7% of women between 18 and 64 had to purchase private, non-employer based, health insurance. A report by the National Women's Law Center, Nowhere to Turn: How the Individual Health Insurance Market Fails Women, analyzed 3500 of such individual health insurance plans in capital cities of 50 states through a common online source. The Center found that many plans discriminated on the basis of gender and that many plans lacked maternity care coverage.
In a startling 39 of the 50 states, plans reserved the right to charge higher premiums or exercise exclusion periods based on gender. Fortunately, Massachusetts is not one of those states. Defending their policies through actuarial statistics that women incur higher health costs than men, insurers in this report charged:
· 25 year old women from 6% to 45% more than 25 year old men
· 40 year old women from 4% to 48% more than 40 year old men
· 55 year old women from 22% less to 37% more than 55 year men
While the women currently under employer-sponsored plans are protected by both federal and state anti-gender-discrimination laws, the report suggests that an increasing trend, of employers choosing to offer financial assistance to buy coverage rather than providing a health insurance plan to their employees, will result in women losing those protections. This in turn compounds the severity of gender rating in individual health insurance plans as more and more women in future will be forced to buy into the loosely controlled individual markets.
Another issue is the treatment of maternity coverage. Not only is pregnancy one of the grounds for insurers to deny women coverage, but many insurers do not cover maternity care at all. Only 12% of the 3500 insurance plans covered in the report provided any kind of maternity coverage let alone a comprehensive one. Further, about 31 of the states offered supplemental 'rider' coverage, but these options were very expensive.
The report recommends several solutions to these issues. Efforts should be dedicated to making employer-sponsored plans more obtainable, especially for smaller employers where employees are more likely to be women than men. The state laws should be tightened to protect the individuals from whims of the insurers, particularly when it comes to selling coverage for health services like maternity care. It has been over forty years since the health insurance market disregarded actuarial criteria in favor of anti-racist practices. It's high time the same fair treatment is applied to gender as well.
Anjali Chhabra
|
|
Calendar |
|
March 11, 2009 - Doris Haddock, Granny D, campaign-finance-reform "folk hero," who turns 99 this March, will be celebrated at a party at the New Hampshire State House. More information at the Coalition for Open Democracy.
March 20, 2009 - Massachusetts Health Council Women's Health Forum, Getting Healthy, Staying Healthy: Knowledge is Everything, will be held at the Marriott Copley Place from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. $85 for members, $95 for nonmembers. For more information call 617-965-3711 or click on http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102488975258&e=001pF2fZnI-8gvJEVY6poXHOTygJ8_GXfsfOBBhJYMMoXykq3Asf7lKiZyvUBWAIsYFQdc-O9inTt17ocAfxUqRyf3laIzAzft5fdTZrQcztAzCRKWOuOCXEw==
May 12 2009 - Boston OWL is hosting a Special Meeting with guest speaker Barney Frank at 11 a.m. at the Brookline Senior Center, 93 Winchester St., Brookline MA. Call Betty Soldz at 617-524-7126 or email milbet@aol.com
|
|
Eastern Mass OWL Membership: Time to Renew |
|
We value your participation as a member of Eastern Mass OWL and hope that you take the time to renew your membership for the year. If you have renewed, we thank you. Your membership dues allow us to advocate for the OWL agenda on state and national levels. They also provide you with state and national OWL information and on-line communication. Renewal dates are in January and July. If you are on the January schedule we hope you will renew today.
To join or renew go to the Eastern Mass OWL website. For questions email Edris Kelley, membership committee chair, at sedris1@verizon.net
|
