In terms of dollars, women themselves are the greatest con­sumers of health care. We make significantly more physician visits than men and are hospitalized more often. We also account for three-fourths of today's long-term-care patients—not surprising when you consider that women's average life expectancy is almost eighty years, which is about seven years longer than men's.

But even though women are living longer in general—and longer than men, in particular—we are not necessarily living better. Women suffer from more illnesses, particularly chronic diseases, than men do. We also experience poorer health outcomes and greater disability than do men. The following statistics bring women's vulnerability into sharp focus.

♦   Heart disease is the number-one killer and disabler of America's women. Some 245,000 women die of heart disease each year.

♦   Cancer is the leading cause of premature death among women. 250,000 women die of cancer each year—46,000 of them from breast cancer.

♦ Osteoporosis affects more than twenty-five million Ameri­cans—twenty million, or 80 percent of them, are women.

♦   Six and a half million American women are afflicted with dia­betes. Approximately 60 percent of the newly diagnosed cases of diabetes arc in women, with a disproportionate incidence in minority women.

♦   One-third of U.S. women are overweight.
 

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