Tag: women’s health

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Albuquerque Journal Letter to the Editor

Printed in Talk of the Town October 11, 2011

Finally, Health Care That Works For All

THE NEW health care law is already having a positive effect on health care costs in New Mexico. Part of why premium increases are slowing is because of the protections the law affords.

The health law provides states with funding to help us better evaluate huge spikes in insurance premiums. These dollars provide states with the capacity to bring greater transparency to the insurance market by reviewing rate increases, which ultimately helps to drive down premiums and hold insurance companies accountable.

Ever-rising premiums have hampered women’s ability to afford health insurance. Not only does this new law help to reduce insurance premiums, but it protects women from discriminatory health insurance practices, and makes coverage more secure by ensuring that working families cannot be denied care due to a pre-existing condition.

The law also provides basic preventative health care and women’s health services with no-copy, which reduces the amount of out-of-pocket costs women would have had to spend on needed care. The law not only helps women and families in New Mexico, but it makes good economic sense.

According to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, the health care law will reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion in the first 10 years and by more than $1 trillion in the second 10 years.

GIOVANNA ROSSI PRESSLEY

Albuquerque

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Policy Briefing on Women and Health Care Reform

November 2, 2011 9:00-11:30am
Albuquerque Crowne Plaza Hotel
(formerly Albuquerque Hilton)
1901 University Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM
RSVP here.

Policy Briefing with National Women’s Law Center VP for Health, Judy Waxman, J.D.
Judy Waxman is the Vice President of Health and Reproductive Rights at the National Women’s Law Center. She pioneers advocacy, policy and educational strategies to promote the quality and availability of health care, including reproductive choice, for American women. Prior to joining the National Women’s Law Center, Ms. Waxman served as Deputy Executive Director at Families USA for over a decade. She holds a law degree from American University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami, in Florida.
A panel of experts will follow:
Joan LaMunyon Sanford, NM Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and Raising Women’s Voices
Justina Trott, Women’s Health Services and RWJ CHP Women’s Health Policy Unit
Barbara K.Webber, Health Action New Mexico
Jane Wishner, Southwest Women’s Law Center

This event is FREE but RSVP is required.

Event sponsored by:
RWJF CHP at UNM Women’s Health Policy Unit
Gender Impacts Policy, a project of the Center of Southwest Culture
State of Women: A partnership between National Women’s Law Center and Gender Impacts Policy

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Dr. Susan Wood on IOM Report and Birth Control

July 21, 2011

Statement from Dr. Susan Wood Regarding IOM Report that Recommends Eight Additional Women’s Health Preventive Services for Coverage

Statement from Susan F. Wood, PhD
Associate Professor of Health Policy
Director, Jacob Institute of Women’s Health
The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
Former Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health, FDA

Women know that preventive services for women includes family planning. Today the IOM confirmed that contraception is prevention and is part of the prevention package that should be covered by all health care plans. By reducing co-pays and deductibles for women getting contraception, this will help women and couples plan their families, space their children, reduce unintended pregnancies, and promote better health for women and children. Preventing unintended pregnancies is the best way to prevent abortion.

Women spend decades of their lives trying to prevent pregnancy, and only a few years actually trying to get pregnant and having children. Making contraception affordable by eliminating co-pays and deductibles is common sense for millions of women and couples across the country – and a real benefit that women will see immediately in their pocketbooks. This coverage of contraception will truly help “Close the Gaps” for women.

Contraception is not controversial – except sometimes for politicians. But this should not be political; coverage of contraception should be based on the evidence as outlined by IOM, which shows that contraception for women is indeed safe and effective prevention. Along with well-woman visits and critical screening for gestational diabetes, STDs, domestic violence, and other important women’s health preventive services, the IOM report “Closing the Gaps” has helped ensure that women’s health counts when we talk about prevention. Women should not be blocked from these critical preventive services due to cost or political debate.

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Women’s Health Today – Access to Affordable Contraceptives

Women’s Health Today
About Women, For Everyone
Friday July 22, 2011 8am MST
KUNM 89.9fm or www.kunm.org
Listen to the promo here: wht-promo 7.22.11

How do sex and gender impact health? Does health policy adequately address systemic problems rooted in the relationships between patient, provider and insurer? Women’s Health Today looks at health from an interdisciplinary and woman-centered perspective, examining the many biological, psychological, environmental and social factors effecting health.

Tune in this Friday (7/22) at 8:00am MST for Women’s Health Today on KUNM 89.9fm or www.kunm.org. On the show I will discuss how health care reform will impact access to birth control. My guests include Judy Waxman of the National Women’s Law Center and Lois Uttley of MergerWatch and co-founder of Raising Women’s Voices. Listen to the promo here: wht-promo 7.22.11

KUNM Broadcast Times – 2011:
Friday, January 21st at 8:00am
Friday, April 22nd at 8:00am
Friday, July 22nd at 8:00am
Friday, September 23rd at 8:00am
Friday, December 23rd at 8:00am


Host: Giovanna Rossi

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New Study Shows that Looking at Sex Differences Can Benefit Both Men and Women

July 13, 2011|By Marissa Cevallos, HealthKey / For the Booster Shots blog
Cancer kills more men than women — some forms more than others, finds a new study.

In the new assessment of cancer data, men are more than twice as likely than women to die from lung, skin, kidney and liver cancers. Overall, not including sex-specific or breast cancers, men’s death rates are 1.9 times higher than women’s, according to the new research.

Scientists already knew men were at higher risk for developing most cancers, but it wasn’t clear if men also died more from cancer. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute pooled together cancer death rates between 1977 and 2006 from a large U.S. cancer database.

They found for the vast majority of cancers, men were more likely to die than women. Only three cancers kill more women than men (well, besides the ones men don’t get): the relatively rare peritoneum, omentum and mesentery; gall bladder; and anus, anal canal and anorectum cancers. The research was published online Tuesday in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

The reason? It’s not necessarily that women are better than men at surviving cancer once they have it. The authors write in their discussion:

“This supports the idea that sex disparities in cancer mortality arise from the sex differences in cancer incidence. … It is feasible that differential environmental exposures and/or physiologic processes, such as sex hormones, could explain the observed sex disparities in survival.”

Such factors include differences in lifestyle. For example, the researchers found that men are more than five times as likely to die from lip and larynx cancers, two cancers linked to tobacco and heavy alcohol use.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/13/news/la-heb-cancer-men-women-20110713

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Women’s Health Today – April Podcast Available Featuring Women’s Health 2011 Congress

Women’s Health Today April 22nd 8am
I discussed some of the challenges in women’s health and gender specific medicine, new research on clinical trials and women, the Affordable Care Act, and National Women’s Health Week. My guests included Women’s Health 2011 Congress Chair, Dr. Wendy Klein, Federal Drug Administration Research Fellow Rita Poon, sex and gender health policy expert and Women’s Health Services Research Director Dr. Justina Trott, and the new director of the Office on Women’s Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Nancy Lee. Listen to the podcast here.

Women’s Health Today
About Women, For Everyone

How do sex and gender impact health? Does health policy adequately address systemic problems rooted in the relationships between patient, provider and insurer? Women’s Health Today looks at health from an interdisciplinary and woman-centered perspective, examining the many biological, psychological, environmental and social factors effecting health.

KUNM Broadcast Times – 2011:
Friday, January 21st at 8:00am
Friday, April 22nd at 8:00am
Friday, July 22nd at 8:00am
Friday, September 23rd at 8:00am
Friday, December 23rd at 8:00am

Host: Giovanna Rossi

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Report Findings Support Legislation on Substance Abuse and Pregnancy

One of the last things I did as Executive Director of the Women’s Health Office was to report policy recommendations about substance abuse and pregnancy to the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee. Some of those recommendations were drafted as legislation and introduced this session:
HM13 (Stewart) Gender-specific Treatment Standards
HM14 (Chasey) Oversight Memorial
SB353(Lopez/WilsonBeffort) Substance Abuse and Family Planning Services
SB354(Lopez/WilsonBeffort) Substance Abuse and Pregnant Women Services
There will be one more bill introduced regarding informed consent for drug testing.


FinalReportSM19
The Senate Memorial 19 Taskforce (SM19) was created by the New Mexico Legislature in 2009 to assess and improve access to substance abuse treatment and prenatal care for pregnant women with substance abuse problems. The SM19 Taskforce was composed of a diverse range of stakeholders and included input from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with technical assistance from two out-of-state experts in the field. The SM19 Taskforce met monthly between September 2009 and August 2010 and performed an extensive review of the literature, an evaluation of data on substance abuse in New Mexico, a review of state laws, systems of care and organizational policies, and consultation with experts. Angie Vachio and I served as co-chairs of the Taskforce. This report represents the Taskforce’s findings.