June 15, 2009
Jacobs Institute of Women's Health
Releases New Report
Women's Health and Health Care Reform:
The Economic Burden of Disease in Women
As America considers ways to reform its health care system, a central focus must be the fact that women need and use the health care system more than men. Women’s reproductive health care needs are part of the reason for increased use, but more women than men also suffer from one or more chronic conditions that require ongoing care, such as diabetes, depression, heart disease, and osteoporosis.
This report, a companion to an earlier Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University report, Women’s Health and Health Care Reform: The Key Role of Comprehensive Reproductive Health Care, was prepared by the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and made possible by the Women Donors Network and the Communications Consortium Media Center. It underscores the key roles of both preventive care and continuity of care for women across the lifespan, including primary and specialty care as well as pregnancy care. Further, this report demonstrates that providing continuity of care for women’s health would not only result in better health for women, but also may yield cost savings for the U.S. health care system as a whole.
For more information and to download PDFs of both reports, please visit: http://www.jiwh.org/content.cfm?sectionid=175
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Women's Health Issues Announces Winner of
2008 Gibbs Leadership Prize for Best Manuscript
Published in 2008
The Editorial Board of Women's Health Issues has chosen "Women's Health Insurance Coverage: 1980-2005," written by Sherry Glied, PhD with co-authors Kathrine Jack, BA, JD, and Jason Rachlin, BA, MA, as the winner of the 2008 Gibbs Leadership Prize as the best manuscript published in 2008. The article appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of Women's Health Issues. Dr. Glied is Department Chair, Health Policy and Management Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. To learn more about the Gibbs Prize and to download a free copy of Dr. Glied's manuscript, please click here.
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Women's Health Issues Releases Supplement on
"Policy and Financing Issues for Preconception and Interconception Health"
Health policy researchers report that one reason the U.S. lags in infant mortality and premature births is inadequate health coverage and insufficient health care for women. With nearly half of poor women uninsured and too few health insurers covering comprehensive preventive and primary care for women, opportunities are missed to screen and treat for problems that affect childbearing.
A special supplement to the journal Women's Health Issues, published by the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health of The George Washington University (GW) School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describes how the nation can improve the health of women and infants with health reforms and more effective public policy. Susan Wood, Director of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health at the GW SPHHS, said: "To improve access to preventive services, Congress and the new Administration must consider who is covered, the design of coverage, and women's health needs."
Just over half - approximately 50 million - U.S. women are of reproductive age and approximately six million U.S. women become pregnant each year. Current health policies are focused on prenatal care and not designed to improve the health of women both before and in between pregnancies. A focus on prevention through preconception and interconception care increasingly is understood as essential, not only to the health of women, but as a key part of a comprehensive strategy to improve the health of the next generation.
"Changes in public policy and health care financing, particularly health coverage and benefits are essential for improving preconception health," said Kay Johnson, co-editor of the Supplement. "In the fifteen peer-reviewed articles in this publication, experts describe how to improve programs and policy."
The Women's Health Issues Supplement provides a framework for improving preconception care in the context of larger health reform debates. "The CDC's 'Recommendations to Improve Preconception Health and Health Care' calls for major reforms in the design of coverage to create a comprehensive women's benefit for women of reproductive age," Wood said. This should include a "well woman" benefit consisting of coverage of routine preventive visits (including a pre-pregnancy checkup) and a broad array of treatments to reduce identified risks.
The Supplement also includes articles describing the roles of federal programs such as Community Health Centers, Healthy Start, and Title X Family Planning programs. Each of these "safety net" programs has the potential to improve preconception health at the state and local levels, particularly in medically underserved areas.
Free online access to all manuscripts in the Supplement is available at the Women's Health Issues website:
http://whijournal.com/issues/contents?issue_key=S1049-3867(08)X0007-6.
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ATTN: Women's Health Issues Subscribers
In past years, the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health offered discount subscriptions to Women's Health Issues to individuals and institutions who donated money at certain levels to the JIWH. Please note that we are no longer offering these discounted subscriptions to Women's Health Issues.
If you would like to subscribe to Women's Health Issues, please visit Elsevier, Inc., our publisher's site at http://whijournal.com.
We welcome, of course, donations to support our work. Donations in any amount are tax deductible within the guidelines of form 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational contributions. To make a donation to JIWH, please visit:
http://www.jiwh.org/content.cfm?sectionid=69.
Thank you for your support!
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Join our new JIWH E-mail Listserve!
If you would like to receive periodic e-mails about activities at the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health and resources for women's health issues, please subscribe to our new listserve. Just send an e-mail with your first and last name and your preferred e-mail address to whieditor@gwu.edu with your request to subscribe.
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New Resources on Women's Health and Health Care Reform
Now Available
The Jacobs Institute of Women's Health is pleased to bring you a new resource for fact sheets, events, reports, recommendations, and analyses of women's health issues in this era of health care reform debates. As we approach the inauguration of President Barack Obama and welcome new members to the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and welcome new state and local officials to the policy arena, we believe it is vital that women's health issues be "front and center" in these dynamic times.
Please visit our new section on women and health care reform at:
http://www.jiwh.org/content.cfm?sectionid=175
We will be updating this section continually in an effort to bring you the most current, cutting-edge information - so Bookmark us and check back often.
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New Resource on Gender & Health Issues
Chloe E. Bird, PhD, Associate Editor of Women's Health Issues and Senior Sociologist at RAND, has co-authored with Patricia Rieker, PhD, a Medical Sociologist at Boston University,
Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choices
and Social Policies
Drs. Bird and Rieker argue that to improve men's and women's health, individuals, researchers, and policymakers must understand the social and biological sources of the perplexing gender differences in illness and longevity. Although individuals are increasingly aware of what they should do to improve health, competing demands for time, money, and attention discourage or prevent healthy behavior. Drawing on research and cross-national examples of family, work, community, and government policies, the authors develop a model of constrained choice that addresses how decisions and actions at each of these levels shape men's and women's health-related opportunities. |
