Women’s health plan cost is higher

High-deductible health insurance plans favored by many employers often wind up being an unfair burden to women, a new study says, largely because women need many routine medical exams that quickly add up.

The median expense for men under 45 in high-deductible plans was less than $500, but for women it was more than $1,200, according to a study by Harvard Medical School researchers. They also found that only a third of insured men in that age group spent more than $1,050 in annual medical costs, while 55% of women did.

“High-deductible plans punish women for having breasts and uteruses and having babies,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, the study’s lead author. “When an employer switches all his employees into a consumer-driven health plan, it’s the same as giving all the women a $1,000 pay cut, on average, because women on average have $1,000 more in health costs than men.”

Women’s costs are higher because they need mammograms, cervical cancer vaccine, Pap tests and pregnancy-related services that men do not, said Woolhandler, who also is a co-founder of a physicians’ group that advocates a single-payer national health insurance system.

The Harvard team’s findings are consistent with data from earlier studies, but this study framed the results differently by focusing on men and women, said Ken Thorpe, an Emory University health policy professor who has studied the topic. He said that so far fewer than 3% of Americans with private health insurance use the consumer-driven health plans studied by the Harvard researchers.

Such plans are offered by some insurers and are increasingly popular with employers. Various versions include health savings accounts and health reimbursement accounts in which patients pay low premiums but have high deductibles. The deductible for medical expenses is typically at least $1,050, but often is as high as $5,000 before insurance kicks in.

The study’s conclusions were questioned by some healthcare consultants, who said that not all plans were designed the same. Many plans don’t make employees responsible for vaccinations or other preventive health services, and many cover varying degrees of initial costs.

“They’re making an assumption” about how a plan is designed, said Rick Wellner, a senior vice president with Aon Consulting in Charlotte, N.C.