ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between employment, insurance, and the private health care system and how that relationship affects women’s health care needs. Health insurance can be private or public. Private insurance is primarily obtained through one’s employment, even though a significant portion of the population purchases a personal policy because their employer does not offer one; others just live without any coverage. Since the 1950s, health insurance has been obtained mainly through and paid for by one’s employer. Health care insurance for men has traditionally been obtained through their employment, but for women it has traditionally been obtained through their spouse’s employment. Women may also receive public insurance—Medicaid—if they receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children (ADFC), but they receive AFDC because they have children to care for, have no employed male in the house to provide for them, and are themselves poor.
