Are we meeting women's health needs at the national and state levels?

Background: Despite recent progress in addressing the health care needs of women, serious problems remain. The nation has not focused consistently and comprehensively on improving women's overall health and well-being, and there are critical gaps in research on women's health.

Objective: To provide the most comprehensive assessment to date of the overall health of women, highlighting areas where progress has been made and where it is required.

Methods: We evaluate over 30 health status indicators and over 60 health policy indicators. We assess the progress in reaching key benchmarks, primarily based on the Healthy People 2010 Objectives, related to the status of women's health and in meeting key policy objectives.

Results: The nation as a whole and many individual states are falling further behind in their quest to reach national goals for women's health. Selected results include: the U.S. met just three of 27 benchmarks for women's health; every state declined in the obesity status indicator (most also declined in the diabetes indicator); and, over a third of all states have weak or nonexistent policies mandating that private insurers offer all or some contraceptive coverage as a benefit in employer-sponsored insurance plans.

Discussion: National and state-by-state report cards indicate the need for improvements in women's access to health insurance and in their access to health care providers and services, including critical reproductive health services. State and federal governments must adopt responsible policies promoting women's health and health care.