Sister, What are YOU doing to fight to get Affordable Women's Health Care?

About 45 million Americans currently cannot afford any health care benefits. Let's use a guestimate that roughly 1/2 of those are women--who have young children to raise. How many of these women go year after year without routine mammograms, PAP smears, routine physical examinations, and ignore medical warning signs simply because they cannot afford even a visit to the local hospital's emergency room? Women are dying at a faster rate than ever before from heart disease, breast cancer is still the second cause of death for women, and lung cancer is claiming more non-smoking women than ever before. Too many working poor and homeless women cannot even be seen by a doctor as a charity case. In fact, emergency rooms are treating less impoverished people than ever before in the U.S.--they are near bankruptcy. Many people are being triaged, and most triaged for lesser illnesses are given referrals to doctors' offices, who tell them that they cannot be seen unless they pay the full amount. It was recently on a national news documentary show that the uninsured unfairly are charged the full amount and not given discounts, while those on health plans receive huge invoice discounts. Why are we going backward in this country? It's not just the women--men also--but for the sake of this--when the majority of poor are women and children, then it truly becomes a civil rights issue for women. Women who get paid shabbily and don't get medical care benefits while trying to support their children on what they make. The travesty here is that we are the richest country in the world that can pay for every spacewalk, every university, every road, every weapons system--but somehow social medicine cannot be created, funded, or maintained. If other dangerous illnesses spread, such as HIV and (hopefully not) Avian Flu, who will provide adequate treatment? If the U.S. Government invested in ensuring that every woman, man, and child had good medical checkups, immunizations, and preventative maintenance, many illnesses such as colon cancer, heart disease, breast cancer--may be stopped through early detection. Women who have to avoid the routine tests could obtain them without fear of inability to pay. What may cost a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars in medical testing could avert paying millions of dollars for cancer therapies and emergency heart care. How many women have you encouraged to fight for her getting competent medical care? How many women have you encouraged to perform monthly breast self-examinations, or have regular heart checkups? How many women have you gotten after for their smoking cigarettes? Also--are you doing it yourselves? Another area is getting sound mental health care for women as well. We bear heavier burdens given the dangerous posture the world finds itself in. Trying to survive in this world with all its trauma, stresses, and pain will wear you down. Depression is treatable and needs to be treated when it occurs. It can do irreparable damage physically to you as well as impair your outlook on life. It too, can cause heart disease. Another area is dental care---poorly cared for teeth will cause major health problems. I had a friend who died from periodontal disease that infected her heart. Please today get after your girlfriends to act healthier, think healthier, and be healthier...You just may have saved their lives.