In the initial amendment salvo of the Senate debate on health care reform, health care for women won and political grandstanding lost.
By a 61-39 vote, the Senate passed an amendment promising that preventive care and screening for women's health issues will be covered. This includes the silent killers of heart disease, cancers and chronic conditions like diabetes.
But the amendment goes further, covering cervical cancer screening, annual mammograms for women under 50, pregnancy and postpartum depression screenings, screenings for domestic violence, and family planning services.
Sen. Mark Begich supported that amendment but not another put forward by Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The Murkowski amendment also addressed preventive care but did not go far enough to ensure the vital screenings described above that are especially important for women's health. Furthermore, the Murkowski amendment insisted on language that forbids abortion to ever be called "preventive." Again, Sen. Begich saw this for what it was -- another attempt to divert attention away from the issue at hand by using the "A" word.
Sen. Murkowski, and anyone else who really thinks about it, knows full well that an abortion can never be defined as "preventive" care. Family planning is preventive and is covered under the Senate bill. Abortion is not. This amendment was exclusively about screening for the early detection of diseases unique to women's health. If the goal of health care reform is to provide the best care possible for our citizens at the lowest possible cost, the emphasis must be on preventive care. We can't afford a system where people put off care, thereby creating the need for much costlier procedures down a very short road. This means ensuring a full range of prevention services for women.
Women of childbearing age spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men. Another disturbing fact is that more than half of women delay or avoid preventive care because of cost. Kudos to Sen. Begich for understanding that being female is not a pre-existing condition.
Robin Smith is a board member of Planned Parenthood of Alaska.
By ROBIN SMITH