Essay Sample on Women's Health and Wellness Act: Issues to Address

Introduction

The policy proposal that would like to be addressed is the "Women's health and wellness Act". This policy was enacted in the year 2002 and took effect on January 1, 2003. The act was based on the amendment of insurance law and public health law and is meant to addressed health care for women such as obstetric gynecologic care and frequency of mammography screening. There have been various problems that are associated with the act that we request your office to look after them for the act to be more effective. Some of the problems that are in the act is covering only a few diseases which are; obstetric gynecologic care and frequency of mammography screening. This is a problem since women are faced with a various health conditions and they are not limited to those covered in the act. The reason to request for the change is to allow women to enjoy good and affordable health care which is guaranteed in the constitution and various acts.

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Another problem experienced in this act is it allowing the religious employer to deny coverage for a certain condition such as contraceptive coverage to its workers. This will lead to discrimination towards those people who may not be sharing common interest with this religious employer. It is a problem to differentiate those religious employers and some might pretend to avoid responsibilities of covering those people. The act needs to be amended or make it difficult for that refusal to happen. The reason behind this proposal is to avoid discrimination against certain people while offering the service to others. This will seem to be inequality among those people whom many of them are living below the poverty level and this proposal will help to solve some of the problems they are facing.

My Policy Proposal

Women's health and wellness act was a law that was meant to increase insurance coverage for preventive and reproductive health services such as, bone mineral and coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices. This act has enabled women to receive these services by just using insurance cover and has generally lowered the death rate for women since they can access health service without difficulties. This law has been helping women a lot but it may be more effective if certain changes and proposals are addressed in this act and necessary changes are done by either amending this act again to incorporate the proposed changes addressed.

One of the changes is to ensure that women's health and wellness are not limited to addressing obstetric gynecologic care and frequency of mammography screening but it addresses entire health problems facing all women. There are many health conditions faced by women that are not addressed in the act such as cervical cancer which is a worrying trend affecting women. Cervical cancer has been one of the major causes of death among women and if not addressed it will continue causing more harm to women. This act has only address mammography screening and has not included cervical cancer screening which is one of the major problems affecting them. Screening of cervical cancer will help to detect those women facing this problem especially those without symptoms or are yet to start showing them.

Early teenage pregnancy among young women is also one of the problems that need to be looked into in this proposal. There has been a rising trend among teenagers who get pregnant and end up suffering due to a lack of resources to cater for their babies since they are not earning any income (Sylvia 2016). The health of the teenager and their young one if not addressed will have a great negative impact especially on their health condition. The women's health and wellness act need to consider addressing this problem before it gets out of control. The act needs to consider advocating for eradicating early pregnancy and ensuring that the condition of the teenage mother and their babies is catered for.

Another problem that needs the attention of women's health and wellness act is addressing the disease of osteoporosis. This is a disease that affects women especially following menopause and their bones usually become porous in the sense that it allows fluids or gases to pass through. This condition is not addressed in the act and there is a need to amend to include insurance coverage for the disease which can help to treat it effectively even though it can't be cured but the diagnosis will help to lower its effects among women.

Chronic diseases in women are a problem that needs to be addressed in the health act proposal since it has been discovered that a great percent of women suffer more in chronic diseases compared to men, (Gupta & Pande 2005). There is, therefore, a need for the act to know why there is an increase in the number of women suffering from chronic disease and come up with various ways to deal with this problem.

Insurance coverage in the act is a problem that needs attention by ensuring there is an increased coverage for various health conditions affecting women since currently the act only covers obstetric, gynecologic care and frequency of mammography screening living other diseases affecting women without coverage. There are many other diseases affecting women and limiting coverage will not address their problem at large. This policy is advocating for all diseases affecting women to be included in this coverage which will improve the wellbeing of women in society. This if done will have a great impact on the health sector since the health of the modern world is determined by the health of women.

There is a need to change women's health and wellness policy to ensure that violence against women is addressed in this act which will improve their wellness as the act stipulate. Women need to be empowered and domestic violence such as sexual abuse is reduced in women. Free health care for women facing sexual assault needs to be implemented and should be covered, (Plitcha 2019). The act also needs to include mental advice treatment faced by these women caused by psychological damage.

The last problem in women's health and wellness policy act is how it allows a religious employer to refuse to offer services for contraceptive coverage to its employer especially women. This is a decision result in discrimination among women which seems to overrule anti-discrimination and public health goal act. The refusal comes with denial of insurance health coverage to people who might not share the same beliefs. It is difficult to define who is a religious employee which has been a court challenge where the court of appeal in California rejected Catholic charities to be exempted from contraceptive equity requirement (Catholic charities v superior court 2001). Discrimination against women should not be allowed no matter the case, even in religious matters.

Proposed Health Solution

One of the problems highlighted above is cervical cancer and the proposed solution is to ensure that women's health and wellness act is amended to include coverage of this disease, (Holahan & Blumberge2006). An enactment should be done to ensure the early screening of women who have higher chances of getting the disease. Wellness of women suffering from this disease will be guaranteed if the disease is discovered in its early stages which will ensure necessary care is carried out. Treatment options such as chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy should be free in this amendment or insurance policy offered on them.

The new proposal is set to address early teenage pregnancies among women, the proposed amendment should ensure that the habit is discouraged. Parents should be encouraged to use other medical measures to cab this habit which includes the use of contraceptive techniques. The act allows some religious employers opting not to include contraceptive in coverage but we propose an increase in reasons for such refusal to occur. Personal responsibility including legal measures must be given to people who are involved in this practice.

Osteoporosis disease should be included in the act as one of the diseases that are covered. The majority of women when they reach menopause are faced with this problem and its treatment is costly hence should be covered by the insurance health policy. This policy proposes a medical assessment to know women who are at high risk of getting osteoporosis. Programs that create public awareness should be initiated.

There should be an enactment to deal with Chronic diseases affecting women which can be done by amending women's health and wellness act for it to address these diseases. A policy should be adopted to promote awareness of such diseases. The insurance policy must be enabled to cover some of these chronic diseases which include cancer for women.

The solution to solve refusal by religious employees for contraceptive coverage which is permitted in women's health and wellness act is to increase the condition necessary for such refusal to happen. The criteria set in the act for the religious employer opting not to include the contraceptive coverage should be high. Available options for the patient who does not receive coverage due to religious employer refusal should be increased so that the patient doesn't suffer due to the employer's interest. This could include another insurance cover scheme that takes care of those people.

Evidence to Support the Policy Change

This proposal if adopted will improve women's health care since it has worked in other developed countries such as England. The proposal will support the "Triple aim" of improving the health population since it is advocating for the system approach change in health, (Stiefel & Nolan 2012). Triple research discovered that health care in the US has been very costly for a common person hence the need for remedies. One of the goals of Triple Aim is to have a healthy population that has been addressed in my proposal where good health in women will come along with an increase in population health. Another issue in Triple aim is reducing the cost of health which will be dealt with if the proposal is accepted since insurance coverage as highlighted above will come along with cost reduction in health. Triple aim advocated for improving the experience for health care for all regardless of their gender which has been supported by our proposal that ensures equal health care service for women who are most discriminated against.

Implementation of Strategy and Challenges

This proposal has various ways to be implemented which will depend on the department of health and human service desire and will to adopt it, (Holahan & Blumberg). One implementing strategy is for the department to advocate it to people and persons with interest in the wellbeing of women. There is various rights group such as women rights group which could take this proposal as their co-agenda in advocating for the rights of women. This group should use their effort and resources to ensure women are not discriminated against in regards to health by advocating for these proposals. The health sector should be on the frontline in implementing this proposal. The department for health and human service may petition the congress house for amendment of some of the clauses addressed in this proposal. When the proposal reaches the congress house it should not delay in looking after them to ensure that they implemented.

The full implementation of this proposal may have some challenges. One of the problems is a lack of interest among people who are supported to ensure that this proposal is dealt with which will result in it being only in writing without any effects. Anothe...