Office of Men's Health proposal makes government news - please contact your rep and voice support

Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2009-05-07 15:42

Article here. Excerpt:

'In 1991, Congress created the Office on Women’s Health within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). But don’t men face health issues, too? Yes they do, and U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA, 18th), has introduced a bill that would address men’s health by establishing the HHS Office of Men’s Health.

According to Rep. Murphy, his “Men and Families Health Care Act of 2009” (H.R. 2115), would raise the public’s awareness of health problems affecting men, and ways to detect and prevent them. ...“For too long the health needs of men have gone unaddressed. This bill will help men’s health take its rightful place in our federal government’s healthcare priorities.”'

This is very important because such an office will open up the matter of men's well-being as such to government involvement. Aside from the VA, the idea of focusing on men's well-being is completely missing from the US government's history of legislative efforts (unless it comes with strings attached, such as risking life and limb in defense of the country). Please take the time to contact your Congressional representative and voice your support for this bill. This is a rare opportunity, we cannot let it just pass us by.

GovTrack.us is a very good resource for all kinds of activism that is seeking legislative changes. The entry for this particular bill is here. Currently this bill is in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The members are listed here. You know what to do!

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Comments

As much as I believe Men's Health is given short shrift in society, I do not think this is good. This looks like a FEMINIST solution to the problem (not that the feminists won't fight this sort of thing). By resorting to THEIR tactics, we lose a lot. Do we want government telling us how to behave? Is that the government's business? No. The solution to the sexist nature of the Office of Women's Health is NOT an Office of Men's Health, it is to get rid of the Office of Women's Health (and, perhaps, Health and Human Services, in general). I realize that this is unlikely, but it is even more unlikely if we tacitly agree that it was good to have an Office of Women's Health in the first place. By supporting an Office of Men's Health, that is what we would be doing.

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Submitted by jgory on Thu, 2009-05-07 18:10

I can't say I follow your reasoning with this matter. There is whether we like it or not hundreds of offices in the federal gov't devoted to women's interests and issues and none as such to men's. We will not be getting rid of them anytime soon. As long as that is the case, even one federal office in existence trying to address a vital (literally) matter to men is a step in the right direction. This is about access to and allocation of resources. Right now women have special allocations and access set aside for them to the tune of billions, possibly trillions of dollars. Men on the other hand: nada.

This is a far-from-perfect world we live in and we have to deal with it as best we can. One day I hope the gov't will stop playing identity politics with our money and all such gender-specific offices can be decommissioned. However until that time, and it is no time soon, we need to fight hard just to get even our vital interests taken into consideration. This is one step in doing so. If we drop the ball here, it'll be years before we get another such chance.

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Submitted by mcc99 on Thu, 2009-05-07 19:46