Building the movement: Health care reform and women's health

How do we work effectively to ensure women's health needs are covered in health care reform strategies? This presentation will focus on the strategies needed to build a movement for an American health care system that puts people at the center and respects everyone's health care needs, including those of women.

The author will draw on her four decades of experience as a leader in the black women's health movement to identify public education, community organizing and messaging strategies that can ignite women to become involved in health care reform efforts. The presentation will include discussion of how to engage women at the community level in meaningful discussion of their health care needs and the existing gaps in their access to care. It will describe how women can become involved in envisioning what a high-quality health system would look like to them and then begin advocating for such a system on the state and national levels.

A key question that will be addressed in this presentation is: What are the issues that keep communities from uniting and working together for the health care we need and deserve? The author will suggest ways to build a unified health care reform movement that transcends ideological differences over such “hot button” issues as reproductive health services and immigrant status, as well as cultural differences based on race, ethnicity, class and disability. The presentation will conclude with a call to action for women's health advocates to take a leadership role in health care reform.