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WASHINGTON, D.C. - After months of Congressional debate about health care reform, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to take up Sen. Max Baucus' proposal on Tuesday. As legislation is crafted, First Lady Michelle Obama is challenging women to speak up about health care reform. Obama points out that women are the primary decision-makers about their family's health care and they often carry a heavier economic burden, too.

Susan Wood, Ph.D., director of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health at George Washington University and the author of several studies on women and health care, lays out the facts: About 20 percent of women under the age of 65 have no health care insurance; in some states, women are denied coverage if they have experienced domestic violence; and when women do have coverage, they are charged higher premiums and often see a long list of preexisting conditions that are excluded, with pregnancy sometimes on that list.

"Women also pay more out-of-pocket than men do, particularly during their reproductive years. It not only is a cost burden to the woman and her family, but it keeps women from getting the care that they need."

The lack of stable, high-quality, affordable health care during a woman's reproductive years can be connected to chronic diseases later in her life, Wood says, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Woods' research shows that those two conditions in women, combined, cost families more than $200 billion a year in direct medical expenses.

Wood promotes the idea of "well woman" visits for primary and reproductive care for all women through all stages of life. She says right now that kind of care is rarely available and is rarely covered by private insurance.

"At a 'well-woman' visit, blood pressure is taken, blood sugar can be monitored, screening for depression and domestic violence and counseling about smoking can be provided. These are issues that can have serious consequences for a woman, either right then or later in life."

Wood's latest report, "The Economic Burden of Disease in Women," is at www.wellwoman09.org.

Jame's Notebook

The longer the health care debate rages the more it becomes clear that this debate is a clear extension of the 2008 Presidential Election campaign. The debate has devolved from disagreement on policy to disagreement on philosophy, to name-calling and over the top rhetoric. What we are seeing, essentially, is the reincarnated frustration of a group of Americans who lost the election of 2008.

Adults holding signs of Obama made to look like Hitler. Men carrying a loaded assault rifles to town hall meetings. These are signs of rage, of confusion and most of all fear. I don’t use the word racism often. I don’t know that what we’re even seeing here can be called racism. I think what we are witnessing is a group of Americans who until recently were the majority. They believed they spoke for “real” America, and they usually got their way. They’re watching America change, demographically, politically and culturally, and they feel lost. That’s why Sarah Palin remains popular. It’s why the idea that there could even be a “death panel” in a health care bill has held traction.

Americans were allowed to believe throughout the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush II eras that the debts they accumulated didn’t matter, that as long as they’re kids were headed to college and they had a big house with 2 cars everything was OK. A generation of citizens is clinging to what Ronald Reagan convinced them of, though he never proved. Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will create wealth for all Americans (they didn’t) that the market should be the guiding force in society (housing bubble) and that large powerful national defense would protect us from all enemies (September 11th).

And so we are flung into an age where that which we thought we understood about the world has been proven false and the last leader of that age has been swept out of office a disreputable laughing stock. His supporters are left clinging to the promises of the Reagan revolution no matter how false. These see the change that has been swept into the White House and they are frightened. So the same rage, the same fear we saw at campaign rallies where they called Obama a Muslim (which, by the way, shouldn’t matter in this country), questioned his pledging allegiance to the flag, said that he used the Koran at his swearing in ceremony, and countless other falsehoods are back out there. Cynically, the MSM is watching all this rather than reporting the truth about prospective health plans. Controversy draws eyeballs, not facts apparently. So just as during the campaign, we are left the determine for ourselves which side we want to believe.

The trouble is it’s not a campaign any more. This legislation will effect 1/6th of our economy and the way of life for all Americans. We should have a news media that can actually inform people on the facts of this legislation, not terrify them of the President, or wink when the pretty ex-govenor mentions a ‘death panel.’ Media pundits say that the White House has lost the message war. Well guess who’s the referee…

Tagged with: Heathcare, MSM, news media, Obama, White House

In all of the recent debate over who deserves access to health care in our wealthy country, one often forgotten fact is that this is one more area where black children and other children of color have always been left behind. Of the nine million uninsured children in America, minority children are uninsured and underinsured at far greater rates than white children. One in 13 white children is uninsured, compared to one in five Latino children, one in five American Indian children, one in eight Black children, and one in nine Asian/Pacific Islander children. Health coverage for all children is a necessary step toward eliminating health disparities and ensuring access to care. And now is the time to take that step with real child health care reform.

Right now, we live in a nation where children of color experience significant health disparities that begin before birth and follow them throughout their lives. Black infants are more than twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday and have higher infant mortality rates than children in 62 nations including Barbados, Malaysia and Thailand. One in every seven babies born to black mothers is born at low birthweight, a core risk factor for infant mortality and childhood developmental disorders. The rate of black infants born at low birthweight in the United States is worse than the rate of low birthweight in more than 100 nations including Algeria, Botswana and Panama.

As they grow, black and Latino children are worse off than white children in having access to regular health care. Black children are 56 percent more likely than white children to have gone more than two years without seeing a doctor and almost three times as likely as white children to use the emergency room as their usual place of health care. Latino children are two and a half times as likely as white children to have gone more than two years without seeing a doctor, are more than twice as likely as white children to have an unmet medical need, and are more than twice as likely as white children to have no regular place for health care.

Not surprisingly, black and Latino children also have higher incidences of childhood illnesses than white children. For example, one out of eight black children has asthma -- one of the most common illnesses in children -- compared to one in 12 white children. One out of every four black two-year-olds and one out of every five Latino two-year-olds is not fully immunized, although we know that every dollar spent vaccinating children against measles, mumps and rubella saves $16 in future costs. More than 30 percent of black children and about 40 percent of Latino children report not receiving dental care. Minority children are more likely to be living in poverty. However, racial disparities aren't just about socio-economic status, although more than three-quarters of uninsured black children have a working parent, and more than half have a parent who works full-time throughout the year.

Access to health care does more than keep our children healthy. Lack of access to health care can be responsible for considerable racial and income disparities, which can result in different life paths for children from their earliest years. While only a small percentage of all children in America are in fair or poor health, Latino and black children are more than four times as likely as white children to be in only fair or poor health. Developmental delays caused by poor health make children less ready to learn in school, disproportionately affecting children of color's ability to reach their full potential and robbing America of the opportunity to have the healthiest and most productive workforce possible. In the emerging global economy, it is absolutely vital to the future of our nation's economic standing in the world that we make every effort to ensure our children get the best education they can. Keeping them in school and healthy enough to pay attention to the teacher is the most basic way to ensure that. And yet we're missing this simple opportunity for millions of our children.

It doesn't have to be this way, and we all need to tell that to our Members of Congress now. Until all children in America have access to health coverage, minority children will continue to be uninsured and underinsured at greater rates than higher income and white children. Health reform must make the system simpler and more equitable for children in communities of color. However, current health reform legislation in the House of Representatives fails to include the reforms children need. In order to create a level playing field for all children in this country, Congress must guarantee affordable coverage, head-to-toe benefits, and a simple and equitable enrollment process for every child in America. And in no case should some children be worse off under reform than they are now. Congressman Bobby Rush is trying to do the right thing for children. Tell your Members of Congress and Speaker Pelosi to support the Rush Amendments in the House health reform bill.

Follow Marian Wright Edelman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChildDefender