The American Heart Association reports on progress and roadblocks to helping women overcome cardiovascular disease.
February 2006 the American Heart Association collaborated with like-minded organizations to introduce the HEART for Women Act in both the House and Senate. To show citizen support for the legislation, the American Heart Association asked women to sign red dress paper dolls, which were collected and delivered to Capitol Hill. We collected enough paper dolls to wrap around the Capitol 6 times! This campaign helped build the momentum that ultimately led to Congress taking the following actions.
- In 2010, the AHA supported a provision, which is now law, that prohibits insurance companies from charging women higher premiums than men for the exact same individual health insurance coverage.
- A key provision of the HEART for Women Act, which requires the FDA to report on the extent to which clinical trial results are reported by gender, was passed by Congress in 2012 and has now been implemented by the FDA.
- The AHA successfully advocated for an increase in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WISEWOMAN heart disease and stroke screening program for low-income women. As a result, six additional states have been able to start WISEWOMAN programs, bringing the total number of states with a program up to 20.
Read the rest at www.newsroom.heart.org
