National health-care law benefits women

Last Sunday, Americans across the country said thank you to their moms with flowers, cards and phone calls.

This week, as we celebrate National Women’s Health Week, you can show your appreciation for the women in your life by making sure they know about the important new protections in the Affordable Care Act, leading to better health and lower costs.

Here are four things about the law all women should know:

First, pre-existing conditions will no longer keep you from getting affordable private insurance. Because of the work we do, women are less likely to have jobs with health coverage than men.

That meant we often had to look for a plan on the individual market where insurers were free to deny us coverage because of a breast cancer diagnosis or even because you had been a victim of domestic violence.

If your daughter had diabetes, they could deny her coverage, too. But that’s changing.

Today, insurers are prohibited from denying coverage to children because of their pre-existing health conditions. And in 2014, this protection will extend to all Americans.

The second thing women should know is that being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition in the insurance market. We all know women have different health needs than men. Before the health-care law, insurers could charge women up to 50 percent more for exactly the same health insurance, even if it didn’t cover women’s basic health needs.

But that’s changing too. Starting in 2014, if you buy your own insurance, there will be a new, competitive marketplace where you can see all the available plans in one place and pick the coverage that best suits your needs. And these plans will be forbidden from charging women more than men and required to cover newborn and maternity care.
Medicare continues to get stronger

A third key change is that it’s now easier to get preventive care. Over the years, too many women have gone without potentially life-saving cancer screenings such as mammograms because of expensive co-pays.

Now, anyone who joins a new health plan will be able to get key preventive care from pap smears to mammograms without paying a co-pay or deductible. And that also applies to preventive care such as vaccinations for your children.

Finally, Medicare is getting stronger. The health-care law addresses gaps in coverage by gradually closing the Medicare prescription drug doughnut hole. This year, seniors in the doughnut hole will get a 50 percent discount on covered brand-name drugs. By 2020, the doughnut hole will disappear.

At the same time, the law provides new tools and resources to crack down on fraud, which drains billions of dollars from the Medicare trust fund each year.

And it includes new support and incentives to help doctors and nurses across the country adopt best practices that can improve care and lower costs.

The health-care law won’t fix all the problems for women in our health-care system.

But it’s a big step in the right direction.

So this National Women’s Health Week, give the women in your life the gift of better health and make sure they know what the health-care law is doing for them.

Get serious about personal health for women’s health week

Popular culture often portrays American mothers as busy models of efficiency — appointment coordinators for their families’ trips to the doctor, dentist and school-related events.

But while mom often becomes Dr. Mom when cold-season or the flu bug hits the family, studies have shown that many American women tend to neglect their own health.

The “It’s Your Time” theme of National Women’s Health Week, celebrated in these days following Mother’s Day, encourages women to make their own health a top priority.

“Women are the caregivers for their families, yet oftentimes they forget or are simply too busy to take care of themselves,” said Morgan E. McGill, director of the Office of Women’s Health at the Indiana State Department of Health.

Her statement probably rings true for many busy mothers. It certainly does for a certain Tribune-Star journalist, who found herself hospitalized for six days after a nagging medical concern turned into a debilitating gall bladder attack. Two surgeries later, this journalist received a thorough scolding from a physician appalled that my last physical occurred more than, let’s just say, five years ago.

Husband and friends exacted a promise to take better care of myself.

So, when Women’s Health Week came onto the newsroom radar, getting a mammogram this week at the Clara Fairbanks Center for Women became my first step in that transition from caregiver to care receiver.

The recommended age for a women to receive her first mammogram is age 40. I missed that milestone. Not that I was unfamiliar with the procedure. I have driven my own mother-in-law to her annual mammogram appointments many times. In fact, 15 years ago, a mammogram detected my mother-in-law’s first sign of breast cancer, and she credits her annual checkups with adding years to her life.

Having enjoyed generally good health most of my life, aside from a few sports-related injuries, it has seemed to me that submitting to annual health screenings would be an admission of potential weakness. And my family genes contain no medical tendencies other than diabetes after age 60, so why worry?

I don’t smoke, still play softball and occasionally shoot hoops with my kids, and I don’t consume alcohol near as often or as much as I think appropriate for my profession. So what health concerns could I possibly have?

Well, I won’t know until I get screened, will I?

A sign in the waiting area of the Clara Fairbanks Center notes that the center has diagnosed 565 breast cancers since 2005. Of those, 98 have been in women younger than 50. That got my attention, along with the admonishment that delayed or late diagnosis may lead to more drastic and expensive treatments, anxiety and harm.

But there was no anxiety associated with the process of getting the mammogram. Radiology technician Leslie Voils specializes in the testing.

“Breast exams are totally different than anything because we are looking at tissue, not bones,” Voils said. “It’s one of the hardest exams for radiologists to read.”

Every person’s breasts are different, she explained, so what may appear normal in one person’s test may not be the same in another person’s test.

A visual exam is conducted to mark any moles or scar tissues, because those spots can show up in the mammogram as a lump. And then, one side at a time, a digital image is made of the breast tissue from a couple of different angles.

Now, many times, I have heard complaints from women who have said that their mammogram felt like their body part was being smashed. I can’t say I agree. It was painless. A bit awkward maybe, but nothing to fuss about.

Leslie told me that the center’s radiologist specializes in reading mammograms, and should read the films within 72 hours. I will receive a letter about my report, and my family doctor will receive a detailed report to add to my medical record.

So with that milestone now behind me, I will move on to other general screenings and immunizations for women. But which one to do next?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a chart online that gives guidelines for women’s health testing based upon ages. You can access recommended screenings for women at www.womenshealth.gov/prevention/general.

McGill from the state’s Office of Women’s Health said state leaders are making a big effort to raise awareness of women’s health in the state. The top three cancers for women in Indiana are breast, lung and colon cancer, she said.

Looking at the screening chart, I shamelessly breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that colorectal health screening should begin at age 50. That is one test I will admit to dreading. But I’ve promised to be screened on time.

Among the steps McGill’s office recommends that women can take to improve their health are:

• Get at least 2 1/2 hours of moderate physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity, or a combination of both, each week.

• Eat a nutritious diet of foods, including vegetables and fruit.

• Visit a health-care professional for checkups and preventive screenings.

• Avoid risky behaviors such as smoking and not wearing a seatbelt.

• Pay attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress.

Eye doctor, you are next on my list.

Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.

Five important facts to know

The American Cancer Society lists five important facts to share with friends about breast cancer.

• All women can get breast cancer — even those who have no family history of the disease.

• The two most important risk factors for breast cancer are being a woman and growing older.

• Women diagnosed with breast cancer early, when the cancer is small and has not spread, have a high chance of surviving it. Getting a mammogram is the best thing you can do to help fight breast cancer early. If you notice any breast changes, tell your doctor without delay.

• You can help reduce your chances of having breast cancer by doing regular physical activity, keeping a healthy weight and limiting the amount of alcohol you drink.

• Through early detection and improved treatments, more women than ever are surviving breast cancer.

DOH-CHD Caraga to strengthen women’s health teams in every barangay

The Department of Health – Center for Health and Development (DOH-CHD) Caraga headed by Regional Dir. Leonita Gorgolon will strengthen the Women’s Health Teams (WHTs) in every barangay being chaired by the barangay captains and co-chaired by Rural Health Midwives that is also supervised by doctors in the Rural Health Unit (RHU).

According to Dr. Grace Lim of DOH-CHD Caraga, the WHTs guarantee an efficient support system in the implementation of the Maternal Newborn Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) strategy.

Lim said that among the functions of the WHT are, to wit: 1) track every pregnancy in the community; 2) assist pregnant women in accomplishing the birth plan; 3) provide quality maternal care, family planning, STI prevention and HIV control and adolescent and youth health services appropriate at community level; and 4) make accurate recordings.
She also emphasized that their priorities are as follows: 1) to ensure every pregnancy is wanted, planned and supported; 2) every pregnancy is adequately managed throughout its course; 3) every delivery is facility-based and attended by physicians; 4) every mother and newborn care secures proper postpartum and postnatal care with appropriate package of services.

With this initiative, DOH-CHD looks forward to the full support of barangay officials for this program.

Members of the WHTs also include Barangay Health Workers, Barangay Nutrition Scholar, Day Care Center Workers, volunteers and others. (PIA-Caraga)

Hispanic women sought for research

Hispanic women in Illinois fare worse than others on many health measures, and Northwestern University doctors are trying a new tactic to address the problem.

This week, they’re launching a Spanish-language version of a women’s health registry website to encourage Hispanic women to participate in local medical research.

Cardiovascular disease, obesity and new AIDS cases disproportionately affect Hispanic women in Illinois.

Candace Tingen, research programs director at Northwestern’s Institute of Women’s Health Research, says including Hispanic women in research is important to help explain the disparities.