| Health
CRITICAL CARE
Local groups join national efforts to improve
awareness and access
Health Awareness Week
As part of the first National LGBT Health Awareness
Week, the Montrose Clinic will host a health fair
on Tuesday, March 18. During the 3-7 p.m. event,
the clinic will offer free screenings for cholesterol,
diabetes, blood pressure, anemia, prostate cancer,
and HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Services will also be available at no charge through
three clinic programs: Frost Eye Clinic, Women's
Health Clinic, and Body Positive Wellness Center.
The clinic will serve refreshments and give door
prizes.
The National Coalition for LGBT Health has organized
the health awareness week (March 16-22) across
the United States. More than 50 local, state,
and national organizations, including Montrose
Clinic, founded the coalition in 2000. The website
is www.lgbthealth.net.
Check out the website GayHealth (www.gayhealth.com)
for more on National LGBT Health Awareness Week.
Cover the Uninsured Week
Forty-one million Americans had no health insurance
in 2001, up 1.4 million from the previous year.
This figure represents 14.6 percent of the population.
Rates of the uninsured increased in all income
groups, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
At the same time, during 2001, an estimated two
million Americans lost their health insurance
due to job loss, the largest one-year increase
in the number of uninsured in nearly a decade.
As a group, GLBT Americans are insured at even
lower rates than other individuals and families.
Because uninsured Americans cannot afford needed
medical care, they live sicker and die younger
than Americans with health coverage. Three facts:
• Uninsured women who develop breast cancer
are twice as likely to die than insured women
with the same diagnosis.
•Uninsured men are nearly twice as likely
to be diagnosed at a late stage of colon cancer
than insured men.
•Eight out of 10 uninsured Americans are
in working families.
To focus attention on the plight of Americans
who lack health insurance, the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation and 11 other national organizations
have organized Cover the Uninsured Week (March
10-16). This endeavor will include grassroots
events across the United States.
Locally, the Houston GLBT Community Center will
serve as a clearinghouse for information produced
by Cover the Uninsured Week.
"By helping to disseminate the compelling facts,
we hope to help encourage a dialogue in our city
about the lack of insurance, which is a critical,
often hidden issue for GLBT Houstonians," center
president Clarence Burton Bagby says.
Check out www.covertheuninsured.org
or www.houstonglbtcenter.org
for more information.
If you have any comments about this article,
please email them to letters@outsmartmagazine.com.
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