What Good is Health Care Reform Without Paid Sick Days?

Recently Raising Women’s Voices, a national initiative working to make sure women’s voices are heard in the health reform debate, wrote a blog post that discussed the need of paid sick days and paid family leave.
Without workplace flexibility, healthcare reform will not have the full impact desired. Without paid sick days, individuals are not going to be able to take the time off work in order to go to the doctor for themselves or for their children. This will continue the cycle of individuals not getting the preventive care they need and using the emergency room. According to a recent survey, those without paid sick days are twice as likely compared to those with paid sick days to use the emergency room for themselves or a family member because they were unable to take off work to seek medical care.

Below is an excerpt from the blog post:

What good is having health coverage if we can’t get time off from work to go to the doctor, recover from illness or take our kids to the doctor? For these reasons it is important for all women to have paid sick days and paid family leave.

Women are the most likely to work in an industry that does not offer paid sick or paid family leave. They are also most likely to be the ones responsible for caring for their sick child or family member. Therefore, for women in particular, the legislation would offer some important benefits.

To learn more please read It’s About Time: The Public Health Imperative for Paid Sick Days and Paid Family Leave. We would like to thank Raising Women’s Voices for drawing attention to this important issue and its relation to health care.