WILLIAMS AND ORIE HOLD WOMEN’S HEALTH ROUNDTABLE

HARRISBURG, September 9, 2002 - - State Senators Connie Williams and Jane Clare Orie held a Women’s Health Roundtable discussion today at the Capitol to create a public policy agenda that focuses on equal access to and delivery of quality healthcare to women.

Healthcare professionals from across the state came to the Roundtable to address wellness and prevention efforts as well as several other issues relating to women’s health issues.

"We must create new women’s health programs, become more invested in the existing women’s health programs that have been proven successful, and put a greater emphasis on data collection and research related to women’s health," Williams (D-Delaware/Montgomery)said.

"The health and welfare of every woman is important and that’s why I believe women’s healthcare must be a top priority in Pennsylvania."

Senators Williams and Orie organized the Roundtable because Pennsylvania received a grade of "unsatisfactory" in "Making the Grade on Women’s Health: A National and State-by-State Report Card" which was Pennsylvania’s first comprehensive assessment of women’s health.

The study was first published in August 2000 by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s FOCUS on Health & Leadership for Women, the National Women’s Law Center, and The Lewin Group. The report card has become an annual publication.

Of the more than 70 state-level women’s health policies reviewed in the study, Pennsylvania has enacted less than a third.

The study reported that Pennsylvania ranked 29th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and met only three of the nine measures addressing wellness and prevention.

According to the 2001 study, 9.6 percent of Pennsylvania women do not have health insurance at all. The Commonwealth ranked 22nd for the percentage of women who are overweight and 39th for the percentage of women who smoke.

"I was particularly shocked to see that Pennsylvania had the 43rd highest rate of women dying from breast cancer and the 39th highest rate of women with AIDS," Williams said.

The Commonwealth did manage to receive a grade of "satisfactory" for the number of women receiving mammograms and pap smears.

"The healthcare professionals present at the Roundtable today and myself adamantly believe that Pennsylvania must emulate the efforts of 16 other states by creating an Office of Women’s Health," Williams said.

"Improving access to healthcare, as well as wellness and prevention efforts, must be the focus of a fundamental shift in public policy and healthcare in the 21st century."

Healthcare professionals and advocates from across the state were present at the Roundtable including representatives from the Magee-Womens Hospital, Nancy Zionts with the Jewish Health Care Foundation, Dr. Ann Honebrink with Penn Health for Women at Radnor, Sue Frietsche with the Women's Law Project, JoAnne Fischer with the Maternity Care Coalition, Gail Wright with Bryn Mawr Hospital, and Candace Robertson with Drexel University College of Medicine's Institute for Women's Health.