Chatham Courier > Opinion
LETTER — Protect community health providers
For communities like ours, local health centers are where many people turn for trusted health care. Community health centers, like Planned Parenthood, often serve as an entry point for essential health care needs. And Planned Parenthood [insert affiliate] isn’t the only health center women rely on for preventive care.
Today, one in four women who receives contraceptive care does so at a women’s health center. One in six who obtain a Pap Test or a pelvic exam does so at a women’s health center, as do one-third of women who receive counseling, testing or treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. This basic health care is essential, particularly during difficult economic times, to give women the tools they need to protect and support their families. This is particularly true when you consider that women of childbearing age spend a remarkable 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, in part because of reproductive health-related needs.
Protecting community health providers in any national health care reform is fundamental to solving provider access issues that will come with expanding coverage and ensuring American’s can access trusted providers wherever they live. Under health care reform, women must have access to reproductive health care and their women’s health provider. Women cannot be worse off after health care reform than they are today.
As a health care provider this issue is very immediate to me. I work with many families in the community and am well aware of the need to make sure families will receive the care needed.
Karen Malina
Chatham
Today, one in four women who receives contraceptive care does so at a women’s health center. One in six who obtain a Pap Test or a pelvic exam does so at a women’s health center, as do one-third of women who receive counseling, testing or treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. This basic health care is essential, particularly during difficult economic times, to give women the tools they need to protect and support their families. This is particularly true when you consider that women of childbearing age spend a remarkable 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, in part because of reproductive health-related needs.
Protecting community health providers in any national health care reform is fundamental to solving provider access issues that will come with expanding coverage and ensuring American’s can access trusted providers wherever they live. Under health care reform, women must have access to reproductive health care and their women’s health provider. Women cannot be worse off after health care reform than they are today.
As a health care provider this issue is very immediate to me. I work with many families in the community and am well aware of the need to make sure families will receive the care needed.
Karen Malina
Chatham
Copyright © 2010 - The Register Star Online