Dave Marsh

I currently work as a policy wonk on issues regarding gender bias and health insurance. According to a report from the non-profit National Women’s Law Center, the practice of health insurance companies charging women more than men for the same coverage is rampant, and costs women one billion dollars a year. Although insurance companies are aware of this discrimination, they have not taken steps to eliminate the widespread practice

No corporation can claim a more vital role in passing and starting to implement the health care reform law than WellPoint. WellPoint hadn't supported health reform; quite the opposite. But as President Obama's demonstrated, WellPoint is maladroit, corporate heavy. If it didn't exist, Obama might have had to invent it.

"[W]hen we found out that an insurance company was systematically dropping the coverage of women diagnosed with breast cancer... my administration called on them to end this practice." News of the practice was broken by Reuters in an April 22 news story by Murray Waas, an investigative reporter who is a cancer survivor. Murray Waas reported that WellPoint canceled breast cancer patients with impunity.