NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak for discovering how chromosomes protect themselves as cells divide, work that has inspired experimental cnacer therapies and may offer insights into aging.
HEARTS AND FOOD: A HEALTHY COMBINATION!
Whether in the corridors of a hospital or the aisles of a farmers’ market, the two extraordinary women below share passion, consideration and leadership in pursuit of healthy living.
Maria Ansari, M. D.
Passion. Empathy. Credibility.
For Dr. Maria Ansari, chief of Cardiology at San Francisco’s Kaiser-Permanente Hospital, these attributes share equal credit with her clinical training and experience in her roles as a physician and department administrator.
“I find that I am approached by staff who are not even in my department because I’m known for being genuine and credible and empathetic. My goal is to look at the global picture, to build by consensus, and motivate those around me for the mission of better care,” she said. “I believe that women have an innate ability to stay true to that nature while getting jobs done without being slick or bringing personal agendas or bending to someone else’s definition of a ‘bottom line’.”
Dr. Ansari, who is married with two young children, emphasized that combining her profession with family involves sacrifices, but she has found pleasure and connection with her patients in sharing information about family when asked. “I believe that that connection improves the trust my patients’ trust in me as we go through diagnosis and care. Also, many of my interactions are with other women who serve as the caregivers and companions to the patients, whether male or female, and I know that they’re looking for authentic communication.” Dr. Ansari said that when she was interviewed for her cardiology fellowship she was asked what she could bring to the prominent University of California at San Francisco program that differed from other top candidates. “I told the interviewer that he would never have to doubt how much I cared and how accountable I would be for the needs of each patient and the standards of the profession. My mantra is to be disciplined, empathetic and passionate, and to always take ownership of the decisions I’m called on to make.”
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Alice Waters
Alice Waters began her journey toward today’s status as “the mother of slow food,” (as she was identified in a recent “60 Minutes” profile) wanting merely to bring friends together with good food while at the University of California at Berkeley. Now, some four decades later, Ms. Waters seeks not only to bring “good food,” but Good Food to the United States -- and to the entire world, to some extent – by embracing local and organic food that meets a three-pronged test: full of taste; sustainably grown; and, nutritious. Indirectly, certainly, her long campaign to push forward these ideals have been taken to heart at The White House, proved by their recently planted produce and flower garden. Ms. Water’s mantra has sometimes been met with cynicism and the opposition of companies that stand to profit from the converse of her message. However, she has never veered from her mission and now, from her landmark Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley to her Edible Schoolyards and to her cookbooks and availability to groups and governments, she continues to Woman Up! . read more
Dara Torres: An Athlete for All Generations
In April Ms. Torres released a memoir in which she shares her advice on staying fit and aging gracefully along with guidance on how her mental strength kept her going when she was surrounded by doubters. The book, Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Drams at Any State in Your Life (Broadway Publishers) was written with Elizabeth Weil.
Woman Up, America! salutes these accomplishments!
WOMEN AND THE INSURANCE BIAS:
Even while anti-discrimination laws make the U.S. a fairer nation, one matter remains seriously amiss:
The health insurance industry’s practice of pricing policies by gender.
Any discussion of health care in America can paradoxically trigger its own health care issues: a headache-producing, stomach-churning vision of the complexity of the plans offered; the instability of employer-sponsored plans; the expense of private and employer plans that require contributions; the threat of denied coverage; difficult access to prescriptive medicines and vision and dental coverage; policy denial for pre-existing conditions; the labyrinth of office and laboratory appointments and paperwork; and . . . well, there is only so much room here.
One item warrants a closer look, however, even as the national battle for universal health care receives most of the headlines: that concern is over the practice of gender bias -- the unfavorable bias toward women -- in health policy pricing.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, women under age 40 “pay between 6 and 48 percent more in individual health insurance than men.” Currently, only 12 states specifically prohibit using gender to price individual policies, although protests are growing to enact the necessary laws to halt the practice.
In one recent state's action, Connecticut’s enacted a law to end insurers’ ability to use gender to determine individual policy rates. The Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal and the executive director of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, Teresa Younger, appeared in front of the Committee to push for the law.
"Discrimination should never be tolerated -- particularly in our health care system," Attorney General Blumenthal said. "The dubious divide in health care puts women at an unconscionable advantage, sometimes jeopardizing access to life-dependent health coverage.”
Ms. Younger said, “Women bear a disproportionate burden when it comes to paying for basic medical care. . . There are even cases where insurers will deny a woman coverage if she is a survivor of domestic abuse. Despite arguments that insurance claims . . . may justify higher rates, we would never accept an insurance rate system that discriminates on racial or religious grounds. Nor should we accept discriminatory rates for women."
Besides the higher rates women have been paying, they remain the most vulnerable to losing insurance, according to an October 2008 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Multiple factors ranging from part-time work, to reliance on spouses who have been laid off, to divorce and widowhood, and pre-existing conditions (without even counting maternity care) create the scenario in which, between the ages of 18 and 64, one woman out of every five (and nearly 1/3 Hispanic/Latina and ¼ African American women) lack public or private health insurance.
The Foundation report noted that women tend to live longer and are the major decision- makers on health issues for nuclear and extended family, making access to care essential not only to their individual well-being but of children, spouses, and, increasingly, aging parents.
The discussion and debate over health care is a long way from being solved, although the Barack Administration continues to make national health care policy a priority. Part of the focus includes the establishment of the new White House Office of Health Reform, which is headed by Nancy-Ann Deparle.
Women's health also remains a significant part of the debate on antional policies, as access to breast and cerivcal cancer screening and choices in family planning have become "bargaining chips."
Let your representative and the White House know what you, your mother, isters, firends and colleagues think and need.
Contact Ms. Deparle at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Executive-Order-Establishing-The-White-House-Office-Of-Health-Reform/ to lend your opinion on behalf of your friends, children, sisters, mothers . . . and, especially, for your irreplaceable self!
Earth Day 2009 brought the announcement of this year’s winners of the world’s most prestigious environmental award, The Goldman Prize. The award and its $150,000 cash prize are given annually to six environmental activists for their extraordinary crusades to protect the natural world, even in the face of daunting opposition. Such persistence and courage are hallmarks of WomanUp! America. So it is that we honor the American winner, Maria Gunnoe of Bob White, W. Va. Follow this link to a complete profile of Ms. Gunnoe and her fellow Goldman Prize recipients.
For 11 years Maria Gunnoe has battled the coal mining companies that blast the tops of mountains apart to get at new seams of coal and then dump the debris into valleys and lakes below, thereby doubling the amount of environmental damage. An April 19 Associated Press dispatch noted that Ms. Gunnoe’s home sits below a valley fill and has been flooded seven times with coal waste. She has also been physically threatened, a family dog poisoned, and her truck’s fuel tank sabotaged in the course of her efforts to change the coal industry’s most destructive actions. “She’s one of the bravest activists that we’ve seen, putting her life on the line,” said Lorrae Rominger, deputy director of the Goldman Environmental Prize, in a statement about Ms. Gunnoe’s recognition.
From her home in Bob White, West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains, Ms. Gunnoe battles the coal industry and its mountain top removal and valley fill operations.
- Scholarships and grant programs National Science Foundation
- The national women's health resource center
- the national women's health network for policy change
- Raising women's voices: national initiative supports affordable care
- Improve health insurance for hispanic and latina women
- FOLLOW AN NPR REPORTER'S SEARCH AND TIPS FOR HEALTH COVERAGE
