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Home - Contacts - Collaborators
Women's Health
Women generally are at a significant economic disadvantage that directly affects their health care status, coverage, and access. Women are more likely than men to be employed part-time, or to work in occupations that inadequate or no employer-based insurance coverage. In addition to economic disadvantages, women suffer from gender biases within the health care system. Research into the causes, treatment and prevention of physical and mental illnesses in women has been seriously neglected. Overall, women live longer than men, and are more likely to need long-term care, and to die with major physical and mental impairments. Access to comprehensive reproductive health services, including sexuality education, family planning and abortion is often limited, and yet is vital to women’s health and economic security. Without a lifespan approach to women’s health, we will continue to fail to close the gaps for women in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease and disability.
Absence of a regular source of care, social isolation, caregiving responsibilities, transportation and exposure to violence and abuse are other important factors affecting women’s health and access to care. While universal and comprehensive physical and mental health coverage is the desired goal, current proposed changes in health care policy have serious and unique implications for women.
The Issues
For women to have access to comprehensive, quality mental and physical health care that will address their health concerns throughout their lives, a wide range of issues needs to be addressed. These include:
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Access to Prescription Drugs
- Research, Prevention, and Treatment
- Reproductive Rights
- Long-Term Care
- Comprehensive Approach to Women’s Health
Priority Recommendations
Health Insurance Coverage
- Support approaches that target the reasons women are uninsured. Increase affordable, comprehensive insurance coverage options for part-time workers, low-income parents, workers in small business, seasonal workers and older adults.
- Enact legislation to expand private health insurance coverage:
- Expand and subsidize comprehensive coverage options for those who are eligible but not participating because of cost
- Eliminate waiting periods to ensure continuity of care for new employees
- Extend COBRA continuation coverage and devise options for supplementing premiums.
- Extend coverage to domestic partners
- Expand publicly funded coverage:
- Create an affordable Medicare buy-in option for uninsured older adults
- Expand public programs to cover laid-off and seasonally employed workers
- Require coverage for domestic partners.
- Require that both public and private health plans cover services for women which promote health and aid in early detection of disease.
- Require all insurers in Maine to cover a full range of mental and substance abuse disorders listed in the DSM 1V and treatment for these illnesses including crisis services, home-based services, case management, and residential treatment.
Access to Prescription Drugs
- Expand enrollment in Healthy Maine Prescriptions, the new program for low-income Maine residents to obtain prescription drug coverage.
- Adopt a comprehensive federal policy to ensure public and private, barrier-free insurance coverage for prescription drugs. Ensure that methods for containing costs do not create barriers for consumers.
- Obtain a federal waiver to provide the full Medicaid drug benefit for Maine seniors and people with disabilities who have incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level.
Research, Prevention, and Treatment
- Increase funding for research and programs to prevent and treat the mental and physical illnesses, causes of death and conditions that constitute key health risks for women. Provide support to help all women to adopt behaviors that promote their health and well-being throughout their lives.
- Build healthy communities that provide a safe environment conducive to positive health behaviors. Require that publicly funded health promotion and disease prevention programs offer culturally competent care and gender specific interventions when appropriate.
- Authorize and fully fund initiatives to address gaps in the availability and accessibility of health education information and services for women.
Reproductive Rights
- Increase the availability of federal funding to increase access to comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education programs, such as Maine’s Family Life Education program.
- Protect funding for family planning programs and services. Inform the public about and ensure access to new preventative measures such as emergency contraception.
- Maintain laws assuring access to abortion and family planning services. Oppose legislative and administrative efforts, at the state and federal levels, to restrict such access.
Comprehensive Approach to Women’s Health
- Improve access to high-quality, comprehensive culturally competent health care services and information that address all women’s complex healthcare needs.
- Support and foster public and private efforts to increase recognition of the breadth of women’s health issues beyond reproductive health, and include comprehensive services across the lifespan. Reallocate and increase funding to facilitate this broader focus.
- Ensure interdisciplinary and interagency focus on women’s health at the state and federal levels, including outreach, innovation, and policy development.
- Require gender analysis of data collected with public funds and support ways to improve the surveillance of women’s health status.
Long-Term Care
- Identify and support creative methods to promote sustainable home care services, including greater use of technology and more support for family caregivers, as an alternative to institutional care. Make home care an option for Maine elders who are determined to be eligible for nursing facility care.
- Promote linkages between long-term care and mental health services at the level of federal agencies.
- Expand training opportunities to increase the number of professionals and paraprofessionals with expertise in serving older persons
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