U. S. States Do Poorly in Women’s
Health Not a single U. S. state meets basic
federal goals for women’s health, and the nation as a whole fails except in two
areas—mammograms and dental check-ups—researchers said on Thursday.
Millions of women lack health insurance, and states make it difficult to
enroll in Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance plan for the poor,
according to the report. And few states are doing anywhere near
enough to help women quit smoking—the leading cause of death in the United
States. "The nation as a whole and the individual states fall
short of meeting national goals," reads the report. Put together by the National
Women’s Law Center and the Oregon Health Science University,
"These health goals provide a road map for assessing the status of women’s
health." Of 27 measures examined by the group, from screening
for diseases to actually treating them, the nation passes on only two, the
researchers said. "The nation is so far from the healthy people goals that it
receives an overall grade of ’unsatisfactory’," they wrote. The
problem seems to be a lack among states of an overall plan for health in
general, the NWLC said. "State policy makers’ piecemeal
approach to our health care crisis has resulted in a complex and ineffective
system that fails to meet the health care needs of women," Judy Waxman, NWLC
Vice President for Health, said in a statement. "Lawmakers need
to take a comprehensive, long-term approach to meeting women’s health needs and
tackle this serious problem that plagues so many families." What kind of approach should be adopted to meet women’s health needs
A. Piecemeal.
B. State-federal.
C. Comprehensive and long-term.
D. Complex and ineffective.