HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

90

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

Expressing support for a Women's Health Platform that recognizes serious inequities in the health prevention and treatment of women, and calls for the elimination of these inequities to improve the health status of women in Hawaii.

 

 

WHEREAS, state government can increase its support for women's health and can make a significant difference in improving the status of women's health; and

WHEREAS, women are different, metabolically, hormonally, and physiologically from men and have different patterns of health and disease, and some diseases are more common in women than in men; and

WHEREAS, women are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases -- more than one in five women have some form of cardiovascular disease and one in two women will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in her lifetime; and

WHEREAS, women are three times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis and two to three times more likely to suffer from depression; and

WHEREAS, women are less often referred for diagnostic tests and less often treated for heart disease as compared to men; and

WHEREAS, women, if they are smokers, are twenty to seventy per cent more likely to develop lung cancer and ten times more likely than men to contract HIV during unprotected sex; and

WHEREAS, women outnumber men three to one in long-term care facilities; and

WHEREAS, women are much more likely to provide health care to family members and make health care decisions and spend two of every three health care dollars; and

WHEREAS, there is abundant evidence that women are under-treated compared to men; and

WHEREAS, there is abundant evidence that women are under-represented in women's health studies; and

WHEREAS, although there has been some national attention given to women's health care issues, and some legislative activity by Congress on access issues, there remains little change in vitally important preventive care and treatment issues; and

WHEREAS, in a recent survey of voters, almost eighty per cent of women and sixty per cent of men favored a women's health platform which supports relevant care, research, and education for women; and

WHEREAS, women have the right to access quality treatment and the latest technologies and appropriate diagnostic tests; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2002, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature expresses its support for a women's health platform that recognizes serious inequities in the health prevention and treatment of women, and calls for the elimination of these inequities to improve the health status of women in Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that every state agency, state-chartered institution of higher education, and recipient of state grants or funding is requested to take appropriate action to achieve improved and equal access for women to quality health care, including:

    1. Providing women equal access to quality health care, including state-of-the-art medical advances and technology;
    2. Increasing the number of women covered by comprehensive health care insurance including primary and preventive health care, for all women;
    3. Preventing serious health problems by timely diagnosis and treatment programs;
    4. Promoting strategies to increase patient access to recommended diagnostic and screening tests, preventive health regimens, and recommended treatments;
    5. Encouraging unimpeded access to women's specialty health providers;
    6. Creating and promoting public/private partnerships to establish programs designed to improve the scope and quality of women's health care;
    7. Improving communications between providers and patients;
    8. Continuing to expand participation of women in clinical trials;
    9. Increasing government and private research on women's health issues and the differences between men and women and how they impact quality health care;

(10) Conducting more health outcomes research to demonstrate the value of women's health care interventions and preventive health measures in both the long- and short-term;

(11) Expanding medical and nursing school curricula in the area of women's health, and education about gender biology;

(12) Supporting public education campaigns to increase women's awareness about their unique health risks, how to negotiate the complexities of today's health care system, and obtain the best care available;

(13) Conducting public health campaigns via state and local departments of public health with private sector partners to focus on key women's preventive health issues;

(14) Urging the establishment of permanent offices of women's health within state government to raise awareness of women's special health care needs and advocate initiatives to address them;

(15) Fostering development and dissemination of publicly available information on the quality of health care and health outcomes that improve women's ability to choose the best women's health care plan; and

(16) Expanding state screening programs targeted at lower-income women to include a full range of known risk factors;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to:

    1. The Governor;
    2. The President and the Chairperson of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii, and the Dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine;
    3. The Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, who is requested to transmit certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution to the directors of all health-related boards and commissions administratively placed within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Insurance Commissioner; and
    4. The Director of Health, who is requested to transmit certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution to all appropriate agencies within or administratively attached to the Department of Health, including the Deputy Director of the Health Resources Administration; the Administrator of the State Health Planning and Development Agency; the Director of the Executive Office on Aging; the President and Chief

Executive Officer of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation; the Chief of the Office of Health Care Assurance; and the Chief of the Office of Health Status Monitoring.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Women's Health; Prevention and Treatment; Eliminate Inequities