Experts predict that almost all insured Americans will be in some form of managed care by 2005. That's why WLDF has created a new program to focus on what managed care really means for the health of American women and their families. A recent survey showed that 83 percent of Americans want to be better informed about health care quality. It also showed that 80 percent believe that quality care has become unaffordable for the average person and that insurance companies compromise quality to save money. Surveys show that women make 70 to 90 percent of all health care decisions for themselves and their families, including choice of health plan.
Women use more health services than men due to longer life spans and reproductive health needs.
Women are the majority of Medicare and adult Medicaid beneficiaries, who are increasingly steered into managed care. As the nation's primary health care consumers, women need to know how and where to find quality care, but managed care's emphasis on cutting costs is raising a lot of questions about quality. We hear about drive-through deliveries and outpatient mastectomies, physician gag rules and lack of access to specialists. In this emerging field, experts don't yet know which measures, standards, and protections will do the best job of telling people what quality care looks like, or where to find it. While the process of setting standards is still in flux, women's advocates have a critical opportunity to help shape and monitor the quality of managed care.