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2009 Roundup: The Year's Best News for Women
Tania Khadder and Hamsa Ramesha
December 16, 2009
#7: The Senate passed the Women’s Health Amendment
We’re still waiting to see what happens with healthcare reform, but as the congressional battle wages on,,one piece of potentially good news has emerged. After a three-day stalemate, the Women’s Health Amendment — which would require all health plans to cover women’s preventative care (like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings) — passed in the Senate.
This amendment became all the more necessary in light of recent recommendations by the US Preventative Services Task Force, which called for less frequent cervical cancer screenings for women and for mammograms only after the age of 50. Some women were afraid they’d be denied free mammogram screenings if they were in their 40s —no longer a worry thanks to the amendment.
Senator Barbara Mikulski, the Democrat who proposed the amendment, took action because it was unfair that, in her words, “the insurance companies take being a woman as a pre-existing condition.”
Hopefully, not anymore.
This amendment became all the more necessary in light of recent recommendations by the US Preventative Services Task Force, which called for less frequent cervical cancer screenings for women and for mammograms only after the age of 50. Some women were afraid they’d be denied free mammogram screenings if they were in their 40s —no longer a worry thanks to the amendment.
Senator Barbara Mikulski, the Democrat who proposed the amendment, took action because it was unfair that, in her words, “the insurance companies take being a woman as a pre-existing condition.”
Hopefully, not anymore.
