Promoting Positive Health Behaviors Every Woman Matters Program was launched in 1992 in Nebraska, United States of America, for the women residents of the state. This program encourages women to get annual check-ups for free. The program is designed for women aged between 40 to 74 years, who have none or restricted health insurance, along with earning low levels of income. The women residents of Nebraska can fill out enrollment forms available to them from various hospitals as well as on the internet in order to be facilitated by the program (Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, 2011). If the application is accepted, the program will send a welcome pack which the applicant should take with them on their doctor's appointment. They should ensure to inform the doctor beforehand that they are a part of Every Woman Matters Program.

The Program administrators will then inform the applicant of their next annual exam date via mail. There are certain criteria that must be met by these women in order to qualify for the program. This includes the age barrier, i.e., the applicant must be between the ages of 40 to 74 years. The applicant should also fulfill the Income Eligibility Guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, Nebraska, which sets out the limits on the household income of the applicant in proportion to the number of members it supports to qualify for the program (Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). Other criteria are that the applicant must not be enrolled in other health care programs namely Medicaid (Adkins, 2012) and Medicare Part B along with not being associated with any Health Maintenance Organization (since all those programs already pay for screening services).

There are approximately 800 hospitals, health care clinics, and laboratories all over the United States of America that perform services for the Every Woman Matters Program. All counties in the state of Nebraska are serviced by community partners who promote the availability of the program, enroll eligible clients, and implement health education activities in their local communities. Additional community partners decrease barriers and help clients to access preventive health care services.

After the applicant passes the qualification criteria, there are a series of health examinations and tests that they can undergo without...

The tests that are sponsored by the program include the basic exams such as blood pressure checkup, glucose or A1C exams if the applicant was previously diagnosed with diabetes, Lipids/Triglycerides (Cholesterol) checkups along with the annual pelvic examinations, clinical breast examinations and screening mammograms. If the primary health examinations suggest the need for further tests to be conducted, then those too will be paid for by Every Woman Matters Program. The follow up tests for which the Every Woman Matters Program will be responsible include repeat breast clinical exams, breast ultrasound, referral for evaluation of breast lumps, diagnostic mammograms, ultrasound guided cyst aspiration/fine needle aspiration of the breast, biopsies of the breasts of all sorts along with colonoscopy.
Every Woman Matters Program is federally funded by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. The main purpose of setting up such a program is that any woman who is diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer in the Every Woman Matters Program has access to quality treatment, education, and rehabilitation for her cancer regardless of age, race, or social economic level. As a result, no woman in the state of Nebraska goes untreated with the lack of financial resources being the cause. Since its launch in 1992, till 2011, Every Woman Matters Program has provided 110,465 mammograms and diagnosed around 914 breast cancers (Nebraska Breast Cancer Control Plan Partnership Network, 2012). Since 2001, Every Woman Matters Program has also offered preventive tests for cardiovascular disease in women along with that of diabetes mellitus. There are also trained nurses and other hospital personnel that, under the Every Woman Matters Program, offer personalized education and information to women to help them live healthier lives.

However, there are a few minor setbacks of this Program. A drawback of the program is the age qualification criteria. The lower age limit for qualification into the program is 40 years. According to statistics, 12.4% women born in America will be diagnosed with breast cancer some time in their lives (Howlader, Noone, Krapcho, & al.). Every 1 in 227 women in America are diagnosed with breast cancer around the age of 30 (National Cancer Institute, 2012). The program doesn't, however, cater to such women no matter whether…