Legislation Introduced by Congresswoman DeLauro

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Summary

The WISEWOMAN Expansion Act

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s WISEWOMAN (Well Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation) program is a demonstration project that provides low-income, uninsured women with both screening and preventive health care services in an effort to prevent cardiovascular disease. WISEWOMAN programs are currently operating in fourteen states: Alaska (2 sites), California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Already, more than 26,000 underserved women have been served through WISEWOMAN, which provides free blood pressure and blood cholesterol screening, with extra testing available at low or reduced cost, and appropriate referrals for medical treatment and follow-up services. Women also receive educational programs to help lower their risk for heart disease – such as programs to help women adopt healthy eating habits and become more physically active.

This has proven to be a very successful model. For example, in just one year, the CDC found that lipid and blood pressure values improved, fat intake decreased, and the risk for death due to heart disease and stroke declined among the women participating in North Carolina’s program.

The WISEWOMAN Expansion Act would:

Allow the CDC to expand the current WISEWOMAN demonstration project to additional states, tribal organizations and territories;

Authorize funding to carry out this program at a level of $20 million for the fiscal year 2006, $25 million for fiscal year 2007, for $30 million for fiscal year 2008, and "such sums" as necessary in subsequent years;

Add flexibility to the program language that would allow screenings and other preventive measures for diseases in addition to cardiovascular diseases, such as diabetes and osteoporosis;

Allow flexibility for the WISEWOMAN program to grow and adapt with the needs of individual states; and

Ensure full collaboration of the WISEWOMAN program with the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). WISEWOMAN programs are "sister" programs with NBCCEDP programs, with women who come in for breast and cervical cancer screening also able to access additional preventive screenings through WISEWOMAN.

More information on WISEWOMAN can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/wisewoman.

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