Provisions In Stimulus Draws Concern About Care For Women, Minorities

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Public Health;  Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 18 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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The $787 billion economic stimulus bill (S. 1) President Obama is expected to sign today includes $1.1 billion in funding for research to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness, a measure critics say could place the government in the middle of the physician-patient relationship and compromise treatment for women and minorities, the New York Times reports. The Times reports that the provision will allow researchers to compare medical devices, surgery, drugs and other methods of treating specific conditions. A council of up to 15 federal employees will coordinate the research and advise Obama and Congress on how to allocate the money. The program is designed to abate soaring health care cost by addressing concerns that doctors have little solid evidence of the effectiveness of many treatments. A House Appropriations Committee report said that the research could "yield significant payoffs" because more costly treatments that prove to be less effective "will no longer be prescribed." However, some women's and minority groups expressed concern over that approach, arguing that drugs and treatments can affect different patients in different ways. They said researchers often overlook such differences because the studies do not include enough women, blacks or Hispanics. Phyllis Greenberger, president of the Society for Women's Health Research, said, "Some drugs appear to be more effective in women than in men, while other medicines are more likely to cause serious complications in women. It's important to look for these sex-based differences."

The Times reports that the final bill includes language guaranteeing the inclusion of women and members of minority groups in federally financed research. Additionally, negotiators said in a report filed with the bill that the research money was not intended to be used to "mandate coverage, reimbursement or other policies for any public or private buyer" (Pear, New York Times, 2/16).

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