Sestak Spotlights Women’s Health at Town Hall
MEDIA, PA – At a Town Hall meeting at Bryn Mawr College — one of America’s most prestigious women’s colleges — U.S. Senate Democratic Candidate Joe Sestak commemorated Women’s Equality Day and the 89th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. The Town Hall, which focused on health care and other issues that affect women, was moderated by Women’s Way founder, life-long advocate for women’s issues and former Democratic Senate nominee Lynn Yeakel. The Town Hall was his sixth focused on health care this month.
“Eighty nine years ago the commitment of women like Susan B. Anthony was realized in the 19th Amendment,” Sestak said. “On that day they achieved, in the right to vote, equality that was theirs by right. But there is more work to do. We need to ensure that women are not only provided fair wages, but also benefits that are based on their performance; equal rights to challenge unfair labor practices, secure health and safety, skill training in fields that are underrepresented by women; and secure retirements and pensions that guarantee their independence and economic security in the coming years.”
Joe advocated passionately for the landmark health reform legislation he helped shape and pass through the Education and Labor Committee. He specifically noted key features of the bill that benefit women who often face higher health costs than men, are less likely to be eligible for employer‐based coverage, and are too often under‐ or uninsured. More than half of women – compared with 39 percent of men – report delaying needed medical care due to cost.
As a member of the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee, Joe worked for key preventive care provisions in the bill to help women, eliminating costs for services such as breast cancer screening and child care. In addition, the bill prohibits new plans from charging women more than men, includes coverage of maternity services as a benefit category in the essential benefits package, and bans the insurance industry practice of rejecting applicants with pre‐existing conditions, which has kept women with histories of health problems – even survivors of domestic violence – from accessing individual coverage.
“Even with these measures, effective reform must have a component that creates competition in the health insurance industry to drive down costs, and offering the choice of a public health care option has that result,” said Sestak. “The choice of a public plan – and it is only a choice – will have a major impact as, even though it is subsidized by premiums and co-pays like any other plan, it will not be paying a multi-million dollar contract to a CEO or incurring advertising expenses. A public option is good for the pocketbooks of working families and I was proud to vote for it in the bill I helped pass in the Education and Labor Committee.”
Sestak, who has six sisters, is committed to fighting for the rights of working women. An original co-sponsor of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, he has also introduced legislation to broaden business opportunities for women. His Small Business Entrepreneurial Development Programs Act and the SBA Trade Programs Act both provide critical resources to Women Business Development Centers.
“Business women in this country are not given a level playing field,” said Sestak. “Between 1997 and 2006, majority women-owned businesses experienced a growth rate nearly twice that of the national average. Yet the more than ten million women-owned firms that make up more than 40 percent of all private businesses in this country receive 3.3 percent of Federal contracts.”
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Joe Sestak was elected to Congress in 2006 after a distinguished 31-year career in the United States Navy, and he is honored to represent the Southeastern Pennsylvania district where he was born and raised. He is a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania. During his Navy career, Joe attained the rank of 3-star Admiral, served in the White House as Director for Defense Policy on President Clinton’s National Security Council, served in the Pentagon as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, and led a series of operational commands at sea, culminating in command of the USS George Washington Aircraft Carrier Battle Group (30 ships, 100 aircraft, and 15,000 sailors/marines/ aviators/SEALs) during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In our nation’s time of crisis in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the Navy turned to Joe Sestak to serve as the first Director of “Deep Blue,” the Navy anti-terrorism unit formed in response to the attacks. Joe is the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to either branch of Congress. He graduated second in his class from the U.S. Naval Academy and holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Joe lives in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Susan, and daughter, Alex, and proudly represents the 7th District, where his parents and six of his siblings still reside.
