This paper is about Every Women Matters Program. The main characteristic of this program was to start an evidence-based breast cancer educational campaign targeting women below the age of 45 all across America and to educate healthcare professional about the risk factors and distinctive challenges faced by young women who had been diagnosed with the disease. Another such program that backed the preventive care and early screenings for women was the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP).
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 paying for them. 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 they belong to a lower income group or not. Moreover, the breast cancer that develops in women younger than the age of 40 is more aggressive as compared to the women above the age of 40 (Breast Cancer in Young Women, 2012) and can be difficult to treat if it is left unattended. Therefore, being not able to receive benefits of this Program, younger women are more prone to non-detection of such diseases until it is too late.
The other drawback of the Every Woman Matters Program is that it only caters to residents of the state of Nebraska. This restricts the screening and treatment services to only women who belong to the state of Nebraska. According to previously mentioned statistics, the occurrence of breast cancer and other forms of cancers in American women is high in numbers. Therefore, restricting such a beneficial Program specifically for breast, cervical and other types of cancers that are prevalent in women in America to only one state out of a total of fifty states does not aid in ensuring improved health for all the women in America.
Apart from this Program, more programs in the America have been introduced in recent years to cater for the needs of women suffering from breast cancers. One of the programs was the Breast Cancer EARLY (Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young) Act which was introduced in March 2009 and was made part of the law in March 2010 (Educating Young Women about Breast Cancer, 2012). This program advocated preventive care for younger women relating to breast cancer and supported early screenings.
The main characteristic of this program was to start an evidence-based breast cancer educational campaign targeting women below the age of 45 all across America and to educate healthcare professional about the risk factors and distinctive challenges faced by young women who had been diagnosed with the disease. Another such program that backed the preventive care and early screenings for women was the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). This program focused on providing women of all ages, races, ethnicities and income groups residing in the United States with the facilities of receiving screening for breast and cervical cancer at a very low cost or completely free (National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, 2012).
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