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SOUTHERN VOICE
OCTOBER 7/1993
AIDS policy chief
Nashville, TN—President Clinton’s health
care plans represent a major improvement in
fighting AIDS, the national AIDS policy co
ordinator said Sept. 23.
Kristine Gebbie told 100 business leaders
that Clinton’s proposals “give us the financial
base of caring for HIV that we’ve never had
before.”
“This gives us the building blocks for
treating this disease,” she said at the
Governor’s Business Responds to AIDS Con
ference, cosponsored by the Centers for Dis
ease Control and Prevention.
Gebbie, a nurse who has been the policy
coordinator for about two months, told re
porters after the speech that a key part of
Clinton’s plan is universal coverage that can
not be revoked.
“Knowing that you are covered and com
munity-rated are critical,” she said. Commu
nity-rated means patients arc not singled out
as exempt from insurance coverage.
Clinton’s proposals greatly increase in
surance benefits for AIDS patients and make
treatment more available in neglected areas,
Gebbie said.
All this means that those with HIV should
be encouraged, she said.
“They need to be receptive to this plan
and watch what happens in Congress.”
Gebbie, former secretary of health in the
state of Washington, said current AIDS treat
ment is basically community programs that
are patched together.
“This [Clinton’s reforms] gives us a base
to plan for prevention.”
Gebbie said she was not surprised that the
insurance community has already begun a
public relations campaign against the plans.
“They stand to lose the most. Their world
is going to have to change drastically,” she
said before flying to Chicago to attend a town
meeting at the University of Illinois at Chi
cago.
She was part of a contingent of Clinton’s
hails health plan
AIDS Czar Kristine Gebbie
top aides who fanned out across the country
to drum up support for the reform movement.
In her speech, Gebbie urged the business
leaders to do more than write their employees
memos on the subject of AIDS.
“We need leaders who don’t just del
egate—they participate,” she said.
“They don’t just send out memos but fol
low up and are visibly unafraid to be associ
ated with the problem.”
She said the business community needs
to recognize that a comprehensive heith edu
cation curriculum is needed in schools “or in
20 years there won’t be any workers.”
Gebbie, who has been in the nursing field
for 30 years, said the public reaction to AIDS
is similar to the way cancer was regarded 30
years ago when it was not listed as the cause
of death in newspaper obituaries.
“We’re not quite sure we can reach out
and embrace this disease like others.”
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Concerns about mammogram frequency
in new national health care plan
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Oltfunselmg
Individuals ▼ Couples ▼ Families
Washington, DC—Some lawmakers are
questioning whether President Clinton’s health
proposal is offering the right prescription when
it comes to the frequency of breast cancer
screening tests.
In his speech to Congress Sept. 22, Clin
ton emphasized that his health care package
would cover routine women’s health services
such as mammograms, a widely used test to
detect breast cancer. However, White House
documents indicate the standard benefit pack
age would include mammograms only for
women over 50, and at intervals of once ev
ery two years.
While medical experts continue to debate
the best timetable for such screening tests, the
American Cancer Society recommends that
women between 40 and 49 receive a
mammogram every other year and women
over 50 be checked annually. That schedule
should be incorporated into the Clinton pack
age, some say.
“They’re not covering women under 50
and...women over 50 are getting one every
two years instead of one a year,” said Sen.
Arlen Specter (R-PA). “We’re going to have
to examine it all with a microscope.”
“My concern is that over 50, most
women...should be getting mammograms
every year,” said Rep. Marjorie Margolies-
Mezvinsky (D-PA). “It’s going to save money
and lives.”
Lawmakers were quick to credit Clinton
for including mammograms in the health pack
age, since some insurance programs now do :
provide any coverage for such preventive tests.
Dr. Susan Stewart, co-chair of the committee
on health reform for the American Medical
Women’s Association, estimated that half the
women in the country don’t receive any breast
cancer screening.
While her organization recommends the
timetable endorsed by the cancer society, she
said, “if we did everybody every other year,
that would be fabulous.”
“For women over 50, it’s definitely an
advantage to screen regularly,” she added.
Rep. Patricia Schrocdcr (D-CO) said she
expected a compromise would be worked out.
She said she would also argue for more flex
ibility in the proposal’s testing schedule for
Pap smears, which screen for uterine cancer.
“I was pleased to hear the president men
tion prevention care, mammograms and Pap
smears. It was a nice way of saying we’re
working on this and we’ll get it figured out,”
she said. “I’m not panicked about it yet.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October is
Breast Cancer
Awareness
Month
Emphasis on HIV
Domestic Violence
and Survivor Issues
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