Last Thursday, the Senate HELP Committee approved an amendment to its draft health care reform bill that set the stage to ensure that all women have access to quality preventive health care, screening and the essential community providers that continue to be the lifeline for many.

We at the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) believe this amendment – offered by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) – represents a critical step forward in helping millions of women access preventive services, like HIV screenings, to help improve health outcomes and save lives. It also guarantees that all patients (men, women and children) in any health care gateway have access to providers like HIV/AIDS clinics, public hospitals, and women’s health centers.

Preventative care is particularly important for women of color. Often the primary care takers of their families, they tend to put the needs of their family members and children ahead of their own – to the detriment of their health. Since 1992, HIV rates among women of color have risen nearly 10%, with over 80% of all HIV cases among women in this country occurring among Black and Hispanic women.

These rates are symptomatic of the larger socio-economic and health disparities found in communities of color in the U.S., which have been disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS since the epidemic began nearly three decades ago. Together, high rates of poverty and homelessness, as well as lack of access to education, full employment and health insurance, have created significant barriers to health care in communities of color. These same trends often are found in rural America as well, where health care entities are severely limited, if available at all. Women in communities of color and rural areas often wait until symptoms of HIV disease or other illness are fully manifested, forcing them to use their local hospital emergency rooms for primary care and severely undermining their health outcomes.

Women’s Health Amendment would cover women of color’s access to services from minority faith- and community-based organizations (MF/CBOs), which provide culturally competent and easily accessible health and HIV/AIDS services in communities of color throughout the country. Over 4,000 strong, MF/CBOs have saved countless lives by providing their clients easily accessible health care services. Supporting their ability to provide a diverse range of services will encourage women to take advantage of preventative services currently not included by the Affordable Health Choices Act: cancer screenings, well-women exams, pre-natal care, pap tests, and other prevention care, while accessing care for their children and other family members.

We are alarmed to learn that some of our representatives oppose health care reform. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R, UT) and the Family Research Council, among others, have falsely attacked this amendment as a mandate for abortion coverage. This amendment covers life-saving preventive care; abortion is not preventive care. To use a political red herring to attack preventive services that are desperately needed in this country – particularly by underserved populations, including the 70 million Americans who lack adequate insurance coverage for the routine health care that others take for granted, is offensive and preposterous.
A wide range of groups support protecting patients’ access to essential community providers, including Families USA, SEIU, Campaign for America’s Future, Health Care for America Now, American Nurses Association, American Academy of Nursing, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, National Association of People with AIDS, National Women’s Law Center, and the National Partnership for Women and Families.

We are calling on all people of conscious to unite around a common purpose: improving access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans, not launching inaccurate attacks that reek of old political debates. Call your member of Congress, write a letter to the editor, blog about this – get the word out that we will not stand for false accusations, as attempts to derail desperately needed health care reform.