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92_HJ0032
LRB9206229LDprA
1 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The General Assembly supports a women's health
3 platform that recognizes the importance of health care and
4 treatment of women and calls for the elimination of any
5 inequities that would impair the health status of women in
6 Illinois; and
7 WHEREAS, Illinois can increase its support for women's
8 health and can make a significant difference in improving the
9 status of women's health; and
10 WHEREAS, Women are different metabolically, hormonally,
11 and physiologically from men and have different patterns of
12 health and disease and some diseases are more common in women
13 than in men; and
14 WHEREAS, Women are more likely to suffer from chronic
15 diseases, more than one in 5 women have some form of
16 cardiovascular disease and one in 2 women will have an
17 osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetimes; and
18 WHEREAS, Women are 3 times more likely than men to
19 develop rheumatoid arthritis and 2 to 3 times more likely
20 than men to suffer from depression; and
21 WHEREAS, Women are referred for diagnostic tests less
22 frequently than men and are less frequently treated for heart
23 disease than men; and
24 WHEREAS, Women who smoke are 20 to 70 percent more likely
25 to develop lung cancer than men and are 10 times more likely
26 to contact HIV during unprotected sex than men; and
27 WHEREAS, Women outnumber men by 3 to 1 in long-term care
28 facilities; and
29 WHEREAS, Women are much more likely to provide health
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1 care to family members and make health care decisions and
2 spend 2 of every 3 health care dollars; and
3 WHEREAS, There is abundant evidence that women are
4 under-treated compared to men; and
5 WHEREAS, There is abundant evidence that women are
6 under-represented in women's health studies; and
7 WHEREAS, Although there has been some national attention
8 on women's health care issues and some legislative activity
9 by the Congress on access issues, there remains little change
10 in vitally important preventive care and treatment issues;
11 and
12 WHEREAS, In a recent survey of voters, almost 80% of
13 women and 60% of men favored a women's health care platform
14 that supports relevant care, relevant research, and relevant
15 education for women; and
16 WHEREAS, 9 out of 10 men and women agree that women have
17 the right to access to quality treatment and access to the
18 latest technologies and appropriate diagnostic tests;
19 therefore, be it
20 RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
21 NINETY-SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
22 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly urges
23 that every State agency and State-chartered institution of
24 learning or recipient of State grants or funding take
25 appropriate action to achieve improved and equal access for
26 women to quality health care, including: providing women with
27 equal access to quality health care, including
28 state-of-the-art medical advances and technology; increasing
29 the number of women covered by comprehensive health care
30 insurance including primary and preventive health care, for
31 all women; preventing serious health problems by timely
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1 diagnosis and treatment programs; promoting strategies to
2 increase patient access to recommended diagnostic and
3 screening tests, preventive health regimens, and recommended
4 treatments; encouraging unimpeded access to women's specialty
5 health providers; creating and promoting public/private
6 partnerships to create programs designed to improve the scope
7 and quality of women's health care; improving communications
8 between providers and patients; the continued expansion of
9 participation by women in clinical trials; the increase in
10 government and private research on women's health issues and
11 the differences between men and women and how they impact
12 quality health care; the conduct of more health outcomes
13 research to demonstrate the value of women's health care
14 interventions and preventative health measures in both the
15 long term and the short term; the expansion of medical and
16 nursing school curricula in the area of women's health,
17 including gender biology education; public education
18 campaigns to increase women's awareness about their unique
19 health risks, how to negotiate the complexities of today's
20 health care system and obtain the best care available; the
21 conduct of public health campaigns via State and local
22 departments of public health with private sector partners to
23 focus on key women's health issues; the initiatives of the
24 Illinois Department of Public Health, Office of Women's
25 Health to raise awareness of women's special health care
26 needs, and the advocacy of those issues; the development and
27 dissemination of publicly available information on the
28 quality of health care and health outcomes that improve
29 women's abilities to choose the best women's health care
30 plan; and the expansion of State screening programs targeted
31 at lower-income women to include a full range of known risk
32 factors; and be it further
33 RESOLVED, That we commend the organization Women in
34 Government for its leadership and enterprise in bringing to
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1 Illinois the appropriate urgency of need and meaningful steps
2 that can be taken to attain the improved and equal access for
3 women to quality health care, technologies, and treatments;
4 education of researchers about gender differences; and
5 unimpeded access to women's health providers; and be it
6 further
7 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
8 delivered to the Executive Director of Women in Government.