Health Care : Current Reviews

Women and the Healthcare Law

Global Healthcare & Fitness Summit

July 20-22, 2015 San Francisco, USA

Shondell V. Hickson

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Health Care: Current Reviews

Abstract:

Health care is shaped by and intertwined with many aspects of women’s lives. Women have unique healthcare needs and
issues that categorize them as a priority population. The failures of our current health care system greatly affect women,
especially women of color. Women constitute more than 52 percent of the U.S. population, and are the major consumers of
health services, as well as the traditional caretakers of their families’ health. Women have greater annual health care expenses
than men ($2,453 vs. $2,316) and pay a greater proportion of their health care expenses out-of-pocket (19% compared to
16%). Women make 58% more visits each year to primary care physicians, and are more likely than men to take at least
one prescription drug on a daily basis. The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 heralded a new era in health
care coverage, with major implications for women’s health and access to care. Provisions such as the mandatory inclusion of
maternity care, coverage without cost sharing for preventive services such as contraceptives, and a prohibition on charging
women more than men for the same plan were all designed to address gaps and inequities in women’s health insurance. Women
face unfair and discriminatory insurance practices, such as being denied coverage or paying more for health insurance than
men. At the same time, individual market health plans often exclude coverage for services that only women need like maternity
care.

Biography :

Shondell. V. Hickson is originally from Guyana, South America and currently resides in Clarksville, TN. She has three children and works fulltime as an Associate
Professor with the School of Nursing (SON) at Austin Peay State University (APSU) in Clarksville, TN. Shondell is also a board certified Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist
(ACNS) that specializes in Infectious diseases and a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). Shondell’s passion is diabetes management and she currently works at Matthew
Walker clinic in Clarksville TN coordinating their Diabetes Program. She recently published an article in Open Access Library Journal entitled Decreasing hemoglobin
A1C with a personalized nutrition, exercise plan and bi-monthly telephone reinforcement calls. She also co-authored and published a chapter in Nursing Clinics of
North America entitled Cultural Competent Patient-Centered Nursing Care.