Senate passes Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; WHOA included as provision in health reform bill

The United States Senate, in a historic Christmas Eve vote, passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (H.R. 3590). The Women's Health Office Act (WHOA), SWHR's signature piece of legislation, was included as a provision in the health reform bill, marking a tremendous accomplishment for women's health and women's health research and an advancement of SWHR's advocacy work.

WHOA cosponsors Senators Barbara Mikulski(D-MD) and Olympia Snow (R-ME) fought to have WHOA maintained as a provision in the Senate health reform bill during its negotiation process. In the House of Representatives, WHOA cosponsors Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) successfully inserted it into the House bill (H.R. 3962), which passed on November 7, 2009. "For too many years, women's health care needs were neglected or poorly understood, and in many cases women were not included in critical health research and studies. Enactment of the Women's Health Office Act as part of greater health care reform will ensure that women's needs and gaps in research, policy, programs, education, and training in women's health will continue to receive the attention they require in the 21st century. I applaud Senator Mikulski, Senator Snowe and Congressman Murphy for their work on this very important issue," said Rep. Maloney (NY-14). Rep. Murphy echoed that sentiment, "President Obama's administration is providing more leadership on women's health than we have seen for the last eight years. And we have an opportunity, in this health reform effort, to work with him to ensure that volumes of research and information on women's health don't disappear simply because we didn't protect it. The Senate's action takes us one step closer to making this a reality."

Women's health offices within federal agencies (e.g., FDA, SAMSHA, NIH, CDC) exist to increase public education awareness campaigns, clinical studies and research for and about women's health. Without adequate funding and staff provided by federal protection, these offices remain vulnerable to elimination due to insufficient funding and staffing resources. If these offices were eliminated women would lose key resources, tools and/or information to make informed health care decisions. WHOA will ensure the federal protections that the offices need to fulfill their missions.

The House and Senate are currently negotiating differences between the two bills and will create a final bill that will be submitted to President Obama for his approval.

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