[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 29, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1961-H1965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MORE ON WOMEN'S HEALTH
The SPEAKER pro tempore [Mr. Rogers]. Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 7, 1997, the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs.
Johnson] is recognized for the balance of the time as the designee of
the majority leader.
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman
from New York [Ms. Slaughter], my colleague in this special order.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to
me.
Mr. Speaker, there are a wide range of both triumphs and shortcomings
in women's health that could be discussed this evening. On the one
hand, a woman's life expectancy has increased from 48 years in 1900 to
79 years today. But on the other hand, many devastating women's health
disorders still remain a mystery and research is desperately needed to
find effective diagnostics, treatments, cures and preventive medicine.
Women are now regularly included in clinical studies after having
been excluded for decades. There is now an Office of Women's Health at
the Public Health Service with corresponding offices at other agencies
like NIH, the CDC, FDA, and the Health Resources and Services
Administration and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
Breast cancer survival rates are up for women for the first time
ever. And genes have been identified that are linked to early onset
breast and cervical cancers as well as a number of other disorders that
affect women like Alzheimer's disease. Estrogen replacement therapy has
provided relief for millions of women from the harsher symptoms of
menopause as well as osteoporosis and other age-related disorders.
The NIH is conducting major women's health initiative designed to
study and to track women health in a large population over decades.
This research will yield invaluable information about the normal aging
process and its pitfalls for women. All of those things have happened
since 1990, as my colleague, the gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs.
Morella] pointed out, when we first set up the Office of Women's
Health.
But there are some shortcomings still in the health of women in the
country. They suffer from a variety of gender-specific disorders that
we do not really understand yet and which, in many cases, are receiving
insufficient attention from the medical and research establishments.
Each year breast cancer strikes 182,000 American women and kills
44,000. We still do not know why breast cancer occurs, how to cure it
or how to prevent it. We do not even know whether is for different ages
and groups of cancer types and the mammography machine which we have
had for the past number of years is all we still have. We need to do
more.
About 12,000 babies are born each year with fetal alcohol syndrome, a
disorder that is completely preventable if women just abstain from
alcohol during pregnancy, and yet we have just learned that the rate of
pregnant women drinking alcohol is on the increase, showing a great
need for education. About 4,000 pregnancies are affected by disorders
like spina bifida or hydrocephalus, which are almost totally
preventable if the woman consumes adequate levels of folic acid. Again,
another need for education.
One-quarter million women die each ear of heart attacks and strokes.
Many of them could have reduced their risk by making dietary changes,
quitting smoking, getting more exercise and, I might add, getting the
kind of medical care that they need. Some of the bills that the
gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Morella] mentioned are very important,
and I am sure all of us will sponsor and work for them very hard,
because there are a number of things that we need to do to move along
the issue of women's health.
One bill that I have introduced is the genetic information
nondiscrimination bill, because I want to make sure that as the human
genome mapping continues that no one man, woman or child in America is
discriminated against when it comes to health insurance. Our bill just
says that the insurance company cannot cancel, deny, refuse to renew or
change the terms or the premiums or the condition of health insurance
coverage based on genetic information.
And most importantly, it says that your genetic information belongs
to you. And without your specific written concept, no one may use it.
H.R. 306, the bill number, has 96 cosponsors and has been endorsed by
over 60 respected health organizations, included the American Cancer
Society, the American Heart Association, the National Breast Cancer
Coalition, and the Jewish Women's Community.
Congress should not be forcing women into making the Hobson's choice
between learning valuable genetic information that they must have and
their risk of losing their insurance or remaining ignorant and keeping
the coverage.
We will also be introducing information on education efforts for DES
or diethylstilbestrol, which was given to pregnant women during the
1970's so that they could have a healthy, bouncing baby. DES was given
to pregnant women in the United States long after the Department of
Agriculture had denied its use for cattle because they knew that it
caused reproductive damage. Yet women in the country continued to be
damaged.
We are seeing that their children and again into a second generation
now have often been damaged by DES, and we need to have more of an
understanding about DES and similar synthetic estrogens because amazing
impacts and discoveries are being made on the effects of estrogen on
women's health. It also authorizes a national education effort to
identify DES-exposed women and their children and their grandchildren
and educate them about the continuing health needs and the risks.
I have also introduced an Eating Disorders Prevention and Education
Act, which I think is terribly important. We are very concerned about
young women who are very unlikely to have a good diet because of their
concern about their weight. Girls as young as 8 are dieting. This is a
national disgrace that interferes with their normal development and
their continued health. We have to make sure that young women
understand that milk and dairy products will not make them fat but will
indeed help to give them the calcium to lay down a good bone mass.
In conclusion, women's health should not be taking a back seat
anymore. We compose over half the Nation's population and a large
number of us are workers and taxpayers. And we want some of our
taxpayer dollars to be used in the health of women in the country.
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We want to make sure that we continue to be part of the clinical
trials. We do not want to be left out anymore.
As the great statesman Benjamin Disraeli said, The health of the
people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all
their powers as a state depend.
We should remember those words.
I would also like to quote Hippocrates, who once wrote, ``Healing is
a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.''
Today we have more opportunities than ever to heal the diseases and
the disorders that affect human beings. We must grasp these
opportunities and act.
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman
from Florida [Ms. Ros-Lehtinen].
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to recognize and
acknowledge the wonderful support that all of the women Members of
Congress have received from the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs.
Johnson] and the Delegate from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton].
They have done a spectacular job of leading the charge on behalf of
women in the United States, and we congratulate them for their
leadership not only on women's health care that we are discussing
tonight but on a myriad of issues as well.
I would like to briefly address the problem of women's health care as
it relates in my community to Hispanic women. Hispanic women are of
particular importance to the health care system not only as recipients
of care themselves but as the member of the family most likely to deal
with health care providers on behalf of children and the elderly. The
health care system must learn how to deliver medical care to women that
are in tune with their cultural realities.
It must be pointed out that Hispanic women are part of one of the
fastest growing populations in the United States and, as such, deserve
special attention by those who deliver health care. There are already
27 million people of Hispanic origin in our country, and in my area of
south Florida there are nearly 1 million Hispanics. A doctor who is
unaware of the cultural framework of her patient will find her job that
much harder. A doctor is unaware of how cancer is viewed by some
Hispanic women, for example, and may have trouble arriving at the
correct diagnosis and then have to deal with the complications that
follow delayed detection.
The Hispanic female population is not monolithic. The differences run
the gamut from different countries of origin to different regions of
those countries, from different educational levels to various lengths
of time in this country. It is important that we address the health
care needs and the concerns of Hispanic women and to develop plans that
will work in harmony with our cultural traditions.
Hispanic women, for example, are less likely to enjoy the full
benefits of our Nation's health care system. Part of this stems from
the fact that 22 percent of Hispanic women are uninsured as compared to
13 percent of non-Hispanic women. As a result of underinsurance and for
various cultural reasons, many Hispanic women are unlikely to receive
preventative health care. For example, 39 percent of Hispanic women did
not have a pap smear last year as opposed to 27 percent of the general
female population who also did not have a pap smear. And 46 percent of
Hispanic women did not undergo a pelvic exam last year as compared to
30 percent of the general female population who did not have such an
exam.
Mr. Speaker, to eliminate this disparity in preventative care, we
need to develop a comprehensive strategy to educate both the medical
profession as well as the underserved Hispanic women to deal with
medical and cultural realities. I urge the medical profession, our
government and the entire spectrum of health care providers to focus on
this rapidly growing population and find new ways to reach out and
provide preventative care. I congratulate once again the gentlewoman
from Connecticut [Mrs. Johnson] and the gentlewoman from the District
of Columbia [Ms. Norton] for leading the charge on behalf of all women
everywhere.
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman
from California [Ms. Woolsey].
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be here today as a member of
the Congressional Women's Caucus to talk about women's health. As we in
Congress look for ways to improve the health of our children and the
long-term well-being of our Nation, women's health is the place to
start.
Last week President Clinton held a conference on early childhood
development. We saw new scientific research from that conference that
showed us that a child's future brain development depends greatly on
his or her first years of life. We know that nurtured and healthy
babies become children who are educated and adults who are productive.
But, Mr. Speaker, we must take it one step further. If we are going
to have healthy children, we must have healthy mothers. A healthy mom
is one who has access to proper nutrition and prenatal care. The WIC
program, the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants,
and children, has provided critical nutritional assistance to needy
pregnant women and, later, their children for the last 23 years. And
now it is time for us to renew our commitment to this important
program.
Mr. Speaker, WIC works. Pregnant women on Medicaid who participate in
WIC have improved dietary intake and weight gain. They are more likely
to receive prenatal care. Mothers on WIC have children with better
learning abilities and higher rates of immunization. And WIC reduces
both the number of low birth weight babies and the infant mortality
rate.
Mr. Speaker, WIC works. It works because it is cost-effective. By
providing nutritional assistance to pregnant women and their babies, we
can prevent more serious and costly health problems associated with
premature and low birth weight babies.
Studies have found that for each dollar spent on pregnant women in
the WIC program, we save up to $3.50 in Medicaid, SSI, and other
program expenditures.
But like so many other programs that help women and children, WIC is
in danger. Congress underfunded WIC last year, so this year hundreds of
thousands of poor women and children risk being thrown out of the
program.
Just last week, Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Appropriations denied
the administration's request for $78 million in supplemental
appropriations. Instead, the committee appropriated only half of this
amount, leaving 180,000 poor women and children at risk of losing
nutritional assistance.
Mr. Speaker, it is simply outrageous that the budget axe is poised
above pregnant women, mothers and infants.
{time} 1900
Next week the House will vote on the supplemental appropriations
bill. We must restore this cruel cut. And as we shape next year's
budget, let us not forget the success of the WIC Program. It is time to
expand WIC to include all eligible women and children; all of those who
are not now covered in the program.
Above all, Mr. Speaker, we must renew our commitment to the WIC
Program and to the women, infants, and children that it serves. If we
want a healthy America, we must have healthy mothers and then we will
have healthy, productive children. Now is the time to act. Later may be
too late.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Connecticut for having this
event tonight.
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman.
It is a great pleasure to have so many women here on the floor of the
House to participate in this special order on women's health, and I
want to recognize now my colleague from New York, Sue Kelly.
Mrs. KELLY. First, Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize the gentlewoman
from Connecticut, Nancy Johnson, and the gentlewoman from the District
of Columbia, Eleanor Norton, for creating a true bipartisan group
concerned and focused on women's health.
Mr. Speaker, I want to take a few moments to discuss the Women's
Health and Cancer Rights Act, H.R. 616. This legislation, which I
introduced in February, along with my colleagues, the gentlewoman from
New York, Ms. Molinari, and the gentleman from New Jersey, Frank
LoBiondo, is a comprehensive measure that focuses on women and breast
cancer; those who
[[Page H1963]]
fear it, those who live with it, and in memory of those who have died
as a result of it.
As we all have heard, through new reports or personal experience,
some women who must undergo mastectomies, lumpectomies or lymph node
dissections for the treatment of breast cancer are rushed through their
recovery from these procedures on an outpatient basis at the insistence
of their health plan or insurance company in order to cut costs. Other
insurance companies cut costs by denying coverage for reconstructive
surgery because they have deemed such procedures as cosmetic.
Ironically, they do not deny reconstructive surgery for an ear lost to
cancer.
The Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act guarantees coverage for
inpatient hospital care following a mastectomy, lumpectomy or lymph
node dissection based on a doctor's judgment, and requires coverage for
breast reconstructive procedures, including symmetrical reconstruction.
In addition, this bill requires coverage of second opinions when any
cancer tests come back either negative or positive, giving patients the
benefit of a second opinion. This important provision will not only
help ensure that false negatives are detected but also give men and
women greater peace of mind.
Several key organizations have endorsed this legislation,
organizations that agree we have a responsibility to protect the
doctor-patient relationship, ensuring that the medical needs of
patients are fully addressed. In fact, I would like to thank the
American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, the National
Breast Cancer Coalition, the Center for Patient Advocacy, the Susan G.
Komen Foundation, and many, many others for their support of this bill.
Some critics claim this measure is nothing more than a mandate
leading to government-controlled health care. Usually those critics
believe that all health care should be individually based and should
utilize medical savings accounts and other initiatives that maximize
individual control over cost. I agree with these ideas, but they are
not in place.
There is also a misconception that this legislation requires 48 hours
of inpatient care. It does not. The length of stay under this bill is
simply determined by the physician and the patient, as it should be.
Developing a system of health care which maximizes an individual's
control over the health care available is the goal that I in particular
strongly support, and so do these organizations. Such a system uses
free market principles to ensure that the health care we receive is of
the highest quality.
However, I realize that while this is a goal we strive for, we are
not there yet. Most Americans do not have access to multiple health
care plans from which to choose. Until they have this choice, it is
going to be necessary for Congress to enact targeted reforms, such as
the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act, reforms that safeguard
quality care while at the same time avoiding overly broad regulations
and mandates.
I am for market-based health care, but I am not willing to stand by
idly while approximately 44,000 women die of breast cancer every year.
They will this year, they did last year. This is a figure which is
comparable to the number of men and women who died in all of the
Vietnam war.
Mr. Speaker, the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act aims to give
women with breast cancer a fighting chance and the dignity to endure
the fight.
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman
from Florida, my colleague, Congresswoman Meek.
Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank my cochair, the
gentlewoman from Connecticut, Nancy Johnson. It is also my privilege,
Mr. Speaker, to thank the Women's Caucus for having us here today to
discuss important facets of women's health.
In our focus today on issues of concern in women's health, I want to
shine the spotlight on a very silent national killer of women, lupus,
L-U-P-U-S. A lot of people have never heard of that term, but it is a
silent killer of women.
Lupus is a serious, complex inflammatory autoimmune disease. It
affects women nine times more often than men. Between 1.4 to 2 million
Americans have been diagnosed with this terrible disease called lupus.
Many more cases go undiagnosed, since the symptoms of this disease come
and go. Lupus also mimics many other illnesses.
Although lupus may occur at any age and in either sex, 90 percent of
those affected are women. During the childbearing years, lupus strikes
women 10 to 15 times more often than men. In addition, lupus is more
prevalent in African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asians.
There is a disproportionate effect upon African-American women.
Among African-American women, the disease occurs with three times the
frequency of occurrence in white women. An estimated 1 in 250 African-
American women between the ages of 15 and 65 develops the disease. So
it attacks women in their prime of life, this terrible disease that
people have trouble remembering the name of, lupus, L-U-P-U-S.
What exactly is lupus and how does it affect those who suffer from
it? Lupus causes inflammation of various parts of the body, especially
the skin, joints, blood and kidneys. Many women many times think they
have arthritis or some kind of rheumatism.
Our body's immune system normally protects the body against viruses,
bacteria and other foreign materials. However, in one who is suffering
from lupus, the immune system loses its ability to tell the difference
between foreign substances and its own cells and tissues. The immune
system then makes antibodies that turns them against itself. So the
immune system, which is supposed to be a protector, becomes the
attacker in the instance of lupus.
Many victims of this disease in the early years suffer debilitating
pain, particularly in the joints. They suffer fatigue. Many of them do
not know what is wrong with them. Doctors have a lot of trouble
diagnosing this disease. It is very hard for a woman in her prime years
to maintain employment and to lead a normal life if she has lupus.
Although lupus can range in severity from mild to life-threatening,
it can be fatal if not detected and treated early. Thousands of women
die each year, Mr. Speaker, and many of them who are stricken do not
have the financial means for treatment which can help control this
terrible disease called lupus.
Lupus is not infectious. It is not rare. It is not cancerous. It is
also not well known. Lupus is not well known. In fact, it is more
prevalent than AIDS, sickle cell anemia, cerebral palsy, multiple
sclerosis and cystic fibrosis combined.
Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of lupus for sufferers, family
members and friends is the fact that there is yet no cure for lupus.
That is why research is needed so badly for this disease which catches
women in the prime years of their life.
Lupus is devastating not only to the victims but to family members as
well. They must watch helplessly while the victim slowly and painfully
succumbs to this terrible disease. I know this from firsthand
experience, Mr. Speaker, having lost a sister and a very close friend
to this disease, lupus.
Because of my involvement in various lupus organizations, I have also
heard firsthand the heartbreaking stories of other women and their
families across this Nation. I recently received a letter from a mother
of a 42-year-old woman who had heard of the lupus bill that I
introduced in the 104th Congress. This woman, who I will call Jane, was
finally diagnosed with lupus in 1993 after repeatedly being tested for
AIDS, repeatedly being treated for arthritis, bursitis, allergies, and
other ailments.
Although Jane was fortunate to encounter a doctor who specialized in
disease control during a near death hospital stay, the aftermath of
this discovery has been devastating. Since beginning treatment for
lupus, both of Jane's hips have deteriorated to the extent that she is
on crutches and is waiting for total hip replacement. This young woman.
Her medication and doctor visits cost over $900 per month. Jane is a
chemist. She was laid off last year when the company she worked for
downsized and was bought out by another company which denied her
medical insurance
[[Page H1964]]
coverage because she has lupus. Many times, Mr. Speaker, the medication
for lupus works against the system as badly as lupus itself.
Jane now receives Social Security benefits of only a fraction of her
former $30,000 per year salary and is unable to meet her debts, buy
food and pay for medication. Jane wants to work and she wants to get
well, but she is no longer able to care for herself. Her mother and
other family members must bear the hardship which this terrible
disease, lupus, which is not well-known, has brought on Jane's life.
This is not an isolated situation. Many cases are worse, because the
women who are victims of lupus have no family many times or friends to
turn to for support.
Something must be done, and I appeal to our appropriations panels and
also to authorizing committees and to the Women's Caucus. If they have
a very strong interest in women's health, something must be done on a
national level to help lupus patients.
To that end, Mr. Speaker, I have introduced H.R. 1111. It is a
bipartisan bill, the Lupus Research and Care Amendments of 1997 to the
Public Health Service Act. My bill has two main focuses.
First, the bill authorizes expanded and intensified research
activities at the National Institutes of Health and other national
research institutes and agencies. We must find a cure for lupus. This
will provide for increased resources to determine reasons why so many
women get lupus, especially African-American women, Latinos and Asians.
The bill also covers research on the causes of the disease, its
frequency, and the differences among sexes, racial, and ethnic groups.
My bill also provides funding for the development of improved
screening techniques, clinical research and development on new
treatments, and information and education for health care professionals
and the public.
The amount allocated to lupus research by NIH in fiscal year 1997
amounted to $34 million. We are very happy about that, but that $34
million is less than one-half of 1 percent of the National Institutes
of Health budget. My bill proposes raising this allocation to $50
million more for fiscal year 1998. And the Women's Caucus is supporting
this because, after all, one of their most major emphasis is on women's
health.
The second part of my bill calls for the establishment of a grant
program to provide for projects to set up, operate and coordinate
effective and cost-effective systems for getting essential services to
lupus sufferers and their families.
Mr. Speaker, American women are at high risk for this deadly and
debilitating disease. Increased professional awareness and improved
diagnostic techniques and evaluation methods can contribute to early
diagnosis and treatment of lupus. We must step up this research to find
a cure and treatment for this silent killer and for this silent
disease.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join the Women's Caucus in
saving the lives and advancing the health of American women by not only
cosponsoring my bill, the Lupus Research and Care Amendments of 1997,
but to support and step up the emphasis on research and development of
all of these killers of women.
{time} 1915
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, in view of the fact that we
have quite a few speakers, I am going to limit my remarks rather more
than I had intended. I do want to thank my colleagues from both sides
of the aisle for their participation tonight. It is impressive, the
work that Congress has done in the area of women's health in recent
years, and much of it has been the direct result of the focus on that
issue that the bipartisan caucus of women Members of Congress has
generated.
I want to talk briefly tonight about two things. I want to talk about
Medicare and women's health, and I want to talk about smoking and
women's health.
It is true, and terrible, that Medicare is an illness program. It
provides health care after you get ill. Medicare by law is not a
preventive health program, and that is something that I believe this
Congress is going to address. We have been holding hearings on
preventive health, we have been generating information about which
preventive tests are important to both women and men on Medicare, and I
believe this year we are going to finally pass a package of preventive
health services that will improve Medicare dramatically and meet the
needs of both men and women far more effectively than the current
program.
For women, it will mean annual mammograms. It will also mean passage
of a bill I introduced recently reauthorizing the Mammogram Quality
Standards Act, which will assure that those mammograms will continue to
be done by well-trained people with high quality equipment, read and
interpreted by able physicians. It will also, I hope, mean that we will
have national standards for testing bone density to help women prevent
osteoporosis and all of the crippling fragility that results from loss
of bone density.
It will also mean, I hope, that we will pass a bill that the
gentlewoman from New York [Ms. Slaughter] has introduced this year, and
she spoke about it earlier, that will guarantee that women who have had
genetic indicators that they are inclined to get breast cancer or some
other disease will not be discriminated against by insurers.
We made a giant step forward on this subject last year when an
amendment I introduced passed and was part of the Medicare legislation
of the last Congress that said that women could not be discriminated
against because they had genetic tests indicating a tendency toward
cancer. That was an important step, but the more extensive bill that my
colleague the gentlewoman from New York [Ms. Slaughter] has introduced
goes on to the issues of privacy, ownership of your medical data that
are terribly, terribly important as we move into the new era of genetic
science and health.
Lastly, I believe that we will this year pass inclusion of women in
clinical trials. It is indeed the Congresswomen's caucus that first
passed legislation assuring that the National Institutes of Health
would include women in all of their health research trials.
It is truly remarkable that we ran the first long-term trial looking
at heart disease on a population entirely of males, and so we came out
of that multi-year project knowing a lot about heart disease in men and
knowing literally nothing about the course of that disease in women,
only to find out later that the course of that disease in women is
really quite different, as we have found out in HIV and a number of
other areas. It is not only unfair to our seniors that they do not have
access to some of the remarkable treatments available through our
cancer clinical trials program, but it is also a disadvantage to the
Nation not to know how those medications that are being tested, those
procedures that are being tested affect both men and women in their
senior years. This Nation needs far better health research data than
our current clinical trials program provides, and it is my hope that in
this session we will see Medicare expanded to provide coverage for
cancer treatments in clinical trials.
Let me talk briefly also about smoking, because smoking is really the
most preventable cause of death and disability and tobacco use studies
have indicated is far more detrimental to women than to men. Women are
far more susceptible than men to tobacco-related disease. Lung cancer
has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among
women. Recent research suggests that women may be more susceptible than
men to the development of lung cancer. Several recent reports also
provide strong evidence of an association between smoking and
osteoporosis. In addition, research shows a dangerous link between
smoking and the use of oral contraceptives.
So while tobacco use directly increases a person's risk of lung
cancer, heart disease, stroke and diseases of the blood vessels, it
holds many additional perils for women. Furthermore, each day 3,000
kids become regular smokers. That is more than 1 million a year. One
third of them will die from tobacco-related disease. While smoking is
declining in adults, teenage girls are the fastest growing group of
smokers.
[[Page H1965]]
Smoking by mothers during pregnancy can adversely affect the supply
of oxygen and nutrients to the fetus and has been shown to increase the
risk of low birth weight, miscarriage, still birth, premature birth and
death in the first few weeks of life. Maternal smoking during and after
pregnancy has been estimated to be responsible for one-quarter of the
risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or crib death, and parents who
smoke around their children put them at increased risk for developing
bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and asthma. Children exposed to
smoke may also be at increased risk for cancer in their adult years.
Smoking does cause illness. It causes illness in adults, illness in
children, and it is particularly lethal to women.
Let me conclude by saying that this is a Congress that not only will
address some important women's health issues, it is also, I believe,
the Congress that will move forward on providing coverage for children
whose parents work for employers who do not provide insurance or for
some other reason are without insurance. It is a crime for this Nation
to leave children uncovered for simple diseases like ear infections,
much less their parents exposed to the paralyzing catastrophic costs of
the hospitalization of a child without coverage.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend and a new Member of Congress the
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands [Ms. Christian-Green].
Ms. CHRISTIAN-GREEN. I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, as the first female physician to serve in this body, I
find a special cause in women's health and I would like to thank my
colleagues in the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues and our
chairs, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton] and
the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs. Johnson], and my colleague the
gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Morella] for organizing this special
order.
Mr. Speaker, women make up more than 50 percent of our Nation's
population. Further, we are the primary caregivers for our husbands,
children and aging parents. Consequently, we as a country have a great
stake in the health of our women. To paraphrase a well-known saying, as
the health of women goes, so goes the health of our country.
Traditionally, the issue of women's health had not been a political
or a legislative priority. However, because of the insistence of women
from different walks of life that our stories be heard, that our
statistics be included in research, that the problems which
specifically affect us be studied and addressed, and because of the
leadership of the Caucus on Women's Issues, thank God this is changing.
There are many important issues, such as AIDS, heart disease, cancer,
diabetes and violence, each in themselves deserving of our focus.
However, today I choose to address one of the root causes underlying
some of the dire statistics that diseases such as these represent,
problems such as poverty, poor or inadequate education, lack of
opportunity and limited access to health care. Central to all of these
is the issue of women's access to health insurance.
According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, 12 million
women of working age between the ages of 18 and 64 have no insurance of
any kind. As a result, many of these women have little or no access to
our health care delivery system which is predicated on having insurance
or Medicaid. The Institute for Women's Policy Research further says
that women traditionally obtain health insurance indirectly through
their husband's jobs. But more of these women are falling through the
cracks as more men have jobs that do not provide health insurance and,
in addition, many women do not marry, are divorced, widowed or have a
spouse that has retired or lost his job. Studies also show that only 37
percent of women have access to insurance through their own jobs. Five
million young women under age 30 have no insurance whatsoever, even
though 70 percent of all births are to women in this age group. Single
mothers are also more likely to be uninsured despite the presence of
Medicaid.
It is a sad reality that even today for women, health insurance and
as a consequence health care is available only to those who can afford
to pay. With this in mind, it is imperative that we take a hard look at
the needs of women with regard to health insurance. In this Congress,
the cause of children's health care will be addressed, but we cannot
stop there. Rich or poor, we as women must know that our needs and the
needs of our families will be met when illness, accident or old age
befalls us.
Mr. Speaker, quality health care should not be an option. It must be
an available choice, not only for women but for all the people of this
Nation. Universal health coverage and universal access to health care
for all must remain our goal.
Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of
my time.
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