Senator Mikulski's Women's Health Amendment Is an Important Improvement to the Senate Health Care Reform Bill

Statement of Terry O'Neill, NOW President

December 1, 2009

The National Organization for Women thanks Senator Barbara Mikulski for introducing the Women's Health Amendment, which would require all health plans to cover women's preventive care including mammograms and cervical cancer screenings.

The breast cancer screening recommendations recently issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) have many women justifiably concerned. With its discriminatory history of denying coverage for various forms of women's health care, it's not a stretch to foresee our profit-driven insurance industry electing not to cover mammograms for women in their 40s based on the USPSTF's new recommendations.

Until there are better diagnostic tools for breast cancer, women must have access to mammograms. In particular, women who have family histories of breast cancer must have access to early mammogram screening. NOW urges all senators to support Senator Mikulski's amendment, which will guarantee women in their 40s access to mammograms and other screenings, and prevent insurance companies from making them so expensive women can't afford them.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Lisa Bennett, 202-628-8669, ext. 123; cell 301-537-7429

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