A coalition of healthcare providers and women’s health activists is calling on U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) to request a congressional hearing to help women suffering from chronic pain find affordable treatment.
On Sept. 30, the coalition sent Capps a letter, which read: “As many as 50 million American women live with one or more chronic pain conditions,” such a fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue disorder, and other conditions.
“When seeking treatment for these conditions,” the letter continued, “women are often dismissed by doctors and told that their health concerns are ‘not real.’”
In the letter, leaders from organizations—including the California Academy of Physician Assistants, The Neuropathy Association, and Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California—argue that “chronic pain conditions are, in fact, very real.” They also asked Congress to hold a hearing considering the enactment of policy changes to get women suffering from chronic pain the attention and treatment they deserve.
“[Chronic pain] is pretty prevalent, and yet it’s pretty neglected and not as well understood as it could be,” said Helen Galvan, a Santa Maria resident and representative for the American G.I. Forum Women’s Auxiliary.
Galvan said she hopes having a hearing will lead to Congress allocating money for the research of chronic pain as a means to educate healthcare professionals and the public.
“It would save taxpayers billions of dollars because of the amount of money spent treating misdiagnoses,” she said.
According to the coalition, language focusing on chronic pain suffered by women was approved last month by the Senate Appropriations Committee in its 2011 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill. Currently, the National Institute of Health is leading an interagency research committee to review the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and identify critical gaps in chronic pain research. The committee will make recommendations to various federal agencies regarding how best to address chronic pain.
In an e-mail to the Sun, Capps’s chief of staff Randolph Harrison said the congresswoman has been a leader on addressing chronic pain in the U.S. House of Reprentatives. Capps sent a letter earlier this year to the chairman of the health subcommittee requesting a hearing. She was also a co-author of the National Pain Care Policy Act, which was approved by the House in March 2009.
“She spoke very enthusiastically about going after [the hearing],” Galvan said. “We’re very proud of Lois Capps’s support of women’s health and that she represents our district.”
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This article appears in Oct 7-14, 2010.
