A Lifetime Commitment to Women's Health

As a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Senator Mikulski is to fighting to make sure no women is left behind when it comes to her health - this means equal, affordable and quality care.

Access to Cancer Screening and Treatment

Senator Mikulski believes that each and every woman has the right to affordable cancer screening and treatment:

• Convened the Women Senators and health experts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and advocacy organizations, for an open forum in 2007 to understand why mammography rates were declining.
• Ensured that Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) plans include contraceptives as a part of the basic benefit.
  • Laid the ground-work to protect privately insured women from discrimination.
• Established the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program in 1991 to ensure low-income women have access to get breast and cervical cancer screening:
  • Since then, more than 5.8 million screenings have been provided to more than 2.5 million eligible women.
  • Resulted in the diagnosis of more than 22,000 breast cancers and 1,500 cervical cancers.
• Sponsored the Breast and Cervical Cancer Act of 2000 to extend Medicaid coverage to treat women with breast and cervical cancer after they are screened and diagnosed.

Improving Quality of Care

Senator Mikulski created the Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA) in 1992 and consistently fights for legislation to reauthorize it:

• MQSA set federal mammogram standards for doctors and facilities. The legislation strengthens standards and requires yearly facility inspections.
• Senator Mikulski has requested studies to:
  • determine the capacity for mammography screening from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
  • make recommendations to improve the quality of and access to breast imaging from the Institute of Medicine

Equality in Health Research

Senator Mikulski understands that men and women have different health problems and has fought to make sure women are represented in health research:

• Fought to make sure women were included in clinical trials.
• Established offices and advocates for women's health at NIH and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), supporting the opening of the Office of Research on Women's Health in 1990.
• Introduced the Women's Health Office Act (S. 612) to make women's health offices permanent within federal agencies.
• Fought for the Women's Health Initiative, which made life-saving information about heart disease, hormone replacement therapy, and other women's health issues available to patients and doctors.

Increased Funding for Women's Health Research and Education

Since the beginning of her career, Senator Mikulski has been fighting for increased funding in women's health research:

• As Dean of the Senate Women, she led the Women Senators in drastically increasing funding for women's health research.
• Including a 700% increase for breast cancer research since 1990.
• Increased funding for the FDA's Office of Women's Health.
• Secured funding for the Institute of Medicine to review the status and future of women's health research.

Searching for Answers on Uterine Fibroids

Senator Mikulski is investing in research to find out how to better treat women diagnosed with uterine fibroids:

• Introduced the Uterine Fibroid Research and Education Act (S. 1413) to increase funding for education and research to find better ways to treat or even cure fibroids.
  • 75% of reproductive-aged women have uterine fibroids, but little is known about them and few good treatment options exist.
• Secured an increase in funding for NIH to conduct further research on uterine fibroids. SEQ CHAPTER.