So I’ve been hearing a lot about this so-called committee for Preventative Services for Women. A blog from NLIRH’s board member recently reminded me to look it up!
To my surprise the committee IS real (it was formed by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies). For the next 15mos they will “review what preventive services are necessary for women's health and well-being and should be considered in the development of comprehensive guidelines for preventive services for women”. Their aim seems to be at reviewing and identifying the gaps in the guidelines set by the USPSTF, which in my opinion, are TONS!
My problem with the people over at USPSTF is that their very generalized recommendations are first, made by doctors from a WIDE array of specialties, and second are left standing alone, without any public education. We all saw what happened with their new breast cancer screening recs, women all over the nation where confused, frustrated, and furious! But that’s a side note.
Now this new committee seems to be on to something. I was very pleased to see women of color on the 14 person committee, as well as 4 men! Most importantly, I was also happy to see progressive states like mine (Cali), being repped hard. We all know we don’t want some super conservative Palin wanna-be influencing women’s HCR policy!
Although the committee’s focus is women’s health, it was not surprising to see much of the public and media clamor being focused on one thing…birth control. Apparently their first meeting touched upon whether or not insurance plans under our new HCR should eliminate co-payments for birth control. Of course I can already see where this will end up…a political debate on the ethics of contraception. Le sigh…
Hopefully they will have the sense to be able to look over this issue and see the significance of the voices that are NOT present at these meetings!
I will continue to follow the committee and their meetings, so check back for updates!
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