Dear Neighbor,
This past Friday, in celebration of Women’s History Month, I hosted a roundtable on women’s health and other issues that affect women in the 11th District of Virginia. I was joined by Prince William County Supervisor Andrea Bailey, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Jamie Lockhart, Inova Vice President of Community Health Karen Berube, and Doctors Rolel Mbaidjol-Kabra and Samrawit Berhanu of Inova Health System. Together, we discussed many important issues concerning women’s health and what we can do to improve it.
We began our conversation with some jarring statistics to illustrate the disparities in care between men and women. Studies have shown that in comparison, women are at a 50 percent higher risk of receiving the wrong initial diagnosis after a heart attack. They are also 25 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed after a stroke. Women are diagnosed an average of four years later than men for over 700 diseases, and two and a half years later for cancer diagnoses.
Roughly three out of every four of the 50 million people with autoimmune diseases are women. They are also significantly more likely to experience an adverse drug reaction, as many drug companies still exclude women from their first round of human testing. Women are thus forced to take medicine without fully knowing the reaction or side effects they may face. Despite exclusion from these tests, over 70 percent of women take at least one prescription during their pregnancy.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the many inequities in our nation, not the least of which is access to care. In particular, we have seen major disruption in women and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health care. That means less access to abortion, contraceptives, HIV/STI testing, and changes in menstruation and pregnancy intentions. Access to in-person care has been severely limited, and the requirements of childcare, which fall predominantly on women, have led to one in three women delaying or canceling a visit to their healthcare provider.
These disparities are even greater for women of color, often due to a combination of social determinants of health and lack of access to care. When we go to the hospital, we expect to receive a sound diagnosis and a follow-up treatment plan, but for many women, particularly women of color, this is not the case.
As a result of these disparities, maternal mortality persists as a public health crisis. Though the global maternal mortality ratio has decreased by over a third in the last twenty years, the United States is an exception among our peer nations. Maternal mortality has increased by nearly 150 percent since 1987, and around 700 people die every year due to pregnancy and birth-related causes.
For Black and Indigenous women, pregnancy-related mortality rates are over three and two times higher, respectively, than for white women. Tragically, the rates of infant mortality are also higher for children born to women of color.
That is why I am proud to have been a cosponsor of several bills to address these disparities. I support the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act (H.R. 959), which takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the Black maternal mortality crisis. It provides for investments in data collection, social determinants of health, maternal behavioral health, the perinatal workforce, and community-based organizations to ascertain how to best address and resolve these inequities.
States are currently required to provide Medicaid coverage for only 60 days postpartum, even though research shows that 70 percent of new mothers experience at least one health complication within the year after giving birth. To address that, I was also proud to support the Helping Medicaid Offer Maternity Services (MOMS) Act, which incentivizes states to extend Medicaid coverage for new moms throughout the entire postpartum period. I was pleased to see this initiative enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan.
Medicaid is already the largest single payer of maternity care and is a powerful tool that we must deploy in our mission to improve maternal health. States that have expanded Medicaid have lower maternal mortality rates with 1.6 fewer maternal deaths per 100,000 women. This reduction is tied to access to health care before, during, and after pregnancy. Women in expansion states have a significantly lower uninsured rate at 9 percent, compared to the 16 percent uninsured rate in non-expansion states. That is why it is so important that Virginia moved to expand Medicaid, allowing more than 500,000 Virginians to gain coverage. I am also grateful that they worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to extend postpartum coverage for 12 months.
In the face of widespread assaults on the long-established right to abortion services, I proudly cosponsored and voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act (H.R. 3755), which would establish a national standard protecting abortion access in every state.
Further, I am a proud original cosponsor of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act (or EACH Act, H.R. 2234) to stop politicians from interfering in someone’s decisions about abortion based on how much they earn or how they are insured. The EACH Act would repeal the Hyde Amendment and expand insurance coverage for abortion care.
To protect Americans’ rights to decide whether and when to have children, a crucial step to achieving gender equality, I also cosponsored the Access to Birth Control Act (H.R. 6005), which requires pharmacies to help ensure access to contraceptives.
As we near the end of the pandemic, please know that I am in your corner, fighting to level the playing field and provide resources to meet our community’s needs. I am proud to be your ally in Congress, and I will continue to work until the disparities in our healthcare system have been righted.
Until then, please continue to take care of yourselves and each other, and remember that my office is here to help. If you have any questions or concerns, or if you need assistance, please don’t hesitate to call us at (703) 256-3071.
