“The health insurancehealth insurance was the first thing we cut. That and selling the second car to pay off the credit cards.” Gordon was finding it hard to talk about it, so Mary took up the running. “We were embarrassed. Didn’t want to tell anyone we were having financial problems.” She looked round their home with pride. “We worked hard for all this. . . We tried to keep up appearances.” “When Doug, that’s our youngest got sick, we didn’t know what to do for the best. We were able to get both kids covered and Doug got the treatment he needed before things got too serious for him.” At least Mary had someone to ask. No matter what your situation, you should never let pride get in the way of your responsibility to your children. There are plenty of people and agencies around to ask. Remember, if you don’t ask for help, you never get any.

But the evidence shows that most medical insurance policies exclude maternity care - in fact, maternity care is usually offered for a substantial increased premium. So what does it come down to? It seems women take more care of their health. They visit their doctors more often to have regular check-ups, are more conscientious when converting their prescriptions into medication and then actually take the drugs. Just as important is the need to join a political campaign to prevent health insurers from using sex as a factor when fixing the premiums. There are anti-discrimination laws to protect people in the workplace and other areas of their lives. The same should apply when everyone seeks medical insurance.