[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself, Ms. Mikulski, Mrs. Feinstein, Mrs. 
        Murray and Ms. Moseley-Braun):
  S. 1799. A bill to promote greater equity in the delivery of health 
care services to American women through expanded research on women's 
health issues and through improved access to health care services, 
including preventive health services; to the Committee on Labor and 
Human Resources.


                   Women's Health Equity Act of 1996

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I am extremely pleased to join with Senator 
Mikulski in introducing the Women's Health Equity Act of 1996. I 
believe that this event is historic, not only because of the impressive 
breadth and depth of this legislation, but because five women Senators, 
including Senators Feinstein, Murray, and Moseley-Braun, have joined 
together to set an agenda for congressional action to improve women's 
health.
  For too many years, women's health care needs were ignored or poorly 
understood, and women were systematically excluded from important 
health research. One famous medical study on breast cancer examined 
hundreds of men. And another federally funded study examined the 
ability of aspirin to prevent heart attacks in 20,000 medical doctors, 
all of whom were men, despite the fact that heart disease is the 
leading cause of death among women.
  Today, Members and the American public understand the importance of 
ensuring that both genders benefit equally from the fruits of medical 
research and the delivery of health care services. Unfortunately, 
equity does not yet exist in health care, and we have a long way to go. 
Knowledge about appropriate course of treatment for women lags far 
behind that for men for many diseases. Research into diseases affecting 
predominately women, such as breast cancer, for years went grossly 
underfunded. And many women do not have access to critical reproductive 
and other health services.
  Throughout my tenure in the House and Senate, I have worked hard to 
expose and eliminate this health care gender gap and improve women's 
access to affordable, quality health services. And under my leadership 
as the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, women 
legislators in the House called for a GAO investigation into the 
inclusion of women and minorities in medical research at the National 
Institute of Health. This study documented the widespread exclusion of 
women from medical research, and spurred the caucus to introduce the 
first Women's Health Equity Act [WHEA] in 1990. This comprehensive 
legislation provided Congress with its first broad, forward looking 
health agenda intended to redress the historical inequities that face 
women in medical research, prevention and services.
  Since the initial introduction of WHEA in the 101st Congress, women 
legislators have made important strides on behalf of women's health. 
Legislation from that first package was signed into law as part of the 
NIH Revitalization Act in June 1993, mandating the inclusion of women 
and minorities in clinical trials at NIH. We established the Office of 
Research on Women's Health at NIH, and secured dramatic funding 
increases for research into breast cancer, osteoporosis, and cervical 
cancer.
  Today, I have joined forces with many of my women colleagues on a 
bipartisan basis to take the next crucial step on the road to achieving 
equity in health care. The Women's Health Equity Act of 1996 is 
comprised of 39 bills devoted to research and services in areas of 
critical importance to women's health. I have already introduced 
several of the bills contained in WHEA in the Senate: the Consumer 
Involvement in Breast Cancer Research Act; the Women's Health Office 
Act; the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination in Health Insurance Act 
of 1996; the Patient Access to Clinical Studies Act; the Medicare Bone 
Mass Measurement Coverage Act; and the Accurate Mammography Guidelines 
Act. Together, these 39 bills represent the high-water mark for 
legislation on women's health.
  The research bills contained in title I of WHEA continue to push for 
increased biomedical research in women's health at NIH and other 
Federal agencies, and address the need for social policy to keep pace 
with scientific technology. The impact of the environment of women's 
health, women and AIDS, osteoporosis, and lupus are all addressed in 
this title.
  The service-oriented bills contained in title II of WHEA target new 
areas such as the prevention of insurance discrimination based on 
genetic information or participation in clinical research as well as 
insurance protection for victims of domestic violence. Several bills 
address the need for education and training of health professionals and 
the importance of providing information about health risks and 
prevention to women. Adolescent health, eating disorders, 
postreproductive health, and breast and cervical prevention are also 
addressed, as well as the need to designate obstetrician-gynecologists 
as primary care providers for insurance purposes and to provide for 
minimum hospital stays for mothers and their newborns.
  Improving the health of American women requires a far greater 
understanding of women's health needs and conditions, and ongoing 
evaluation in the areas of research, education, prevention, treatment, 
and the delivery of services. I believe that the 39 bills comprising 
the Women's Health Equity Act will take a giant step in this direction, 
and the passage of this legislation will help ensure that women's 
health will never again be a missing page in America's medical 
textbook.

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