In-The-Know
Addressing Gaps in Women’s Healthcare
In this issue
New insights reveal a significant disparity in healthcare costs and outcomes for women, emphasizing the urgent need to address gaps in women’s health.
According to Deloitte, women with employer-sponsored health insurance pay $15.4 billion more annually in out-of-pocket healthcare costs than men, excluding premiums. Although men and women pay comparable premiums, the value of coverage for women is approximately $1.34 billion lower. Additionally, women face 18% higher average out-of-pocket expenses annually (approximately $266), excluding pregnancy-related costs. Health Action Council data shows that adult women had a 22% higher PMPM than their male counterparts even after pregnancy spend was removed.
These disparities arise from three key drivers:
- Lower effectiveness of treatments for women.
- Lower quality of care delivery for women.
- Lack of comprehensive data reflecting gender-specific healthcare needs.
The increased costs women face are accompanied by worse health outcomes and unequal treatment effectiveness. For example, inhaler therapy is 20% less successful in preventing asthma flare-ups in women compared to men.
The gaps in cardiac care are even more alarming: women are 50% more likely to have a heart condition misdiagnosed and are 2.5 times less likely to receive critical secondary prevention measures following a heart attack. As a result, women are twice as likely as men to die from a severe heart attack.
The Long-Term Health and Economic Toll
These disparities extend to broader economic impacts: women spend an average of nine years in poor health—25% more than men—affecting productivity and earning potential.
Addressing these gaps could yield immense economic benefits. Closing the women’s health gap could generate the equivalent impact of 137 million women accessing full-time employment by 2040, contributing $1 trillion to the global economy annually. That would mean an increase of 1.7 percent in the average per capita GDP generated by women while also adding 7 days of healthy living for each woman annually.
Pathways to Change
Historically, medicine has been studied through a male-centric lens. This underinvestment in women’s health research—from public, private, and social sectors— overlooks how many conditions affect women differently, resulting in worse outcomes for women.
A promising shift is underway with the rise of FemTech, private equity and venture capital investments in software and services tailored toward women’s health. Innovations such as personalized medicine and advanced diagnostic tools are being developed to address gender-specific health needs. This shift seeks to close the gaps in treatment effectiveness and accessibility.
Ways to Help Your Clients
The consequences of women’s health disparities reach far beyond individual health outcomes—they have broad economic implications that can’t be ignored. Addressing these disparities is not only a moral responsibility but also an economic opportunity. To help address gender disparities in employers’ populations, brokers and consultants can help their clients:
- Analyze and review their population’s claims data.
- Explore benefits that provide options for improving access to gender-specific care.
- Review business policies to ensure they support the healthcare needs of women.
- Partner with healthcare providers to identify ways to reduce the financial burden of key benefits and services for women.
- Learn how investments in gender-specific benefits positively impact employee health and productivity.
By focusing on these strategies, brokers and consultants can help employers build benefits packages that improve access to care and support the unique health needs of women in their workforce. Health Action Council is currently analyzing the cost differences between women’s and men’s healthcare and ways to address disparities. We look forward to sharing our findings soon.
Take Action
If you would like to learn more, please contact Jennifer Lahtinen, [email protected].
Email Jennifer Lahtinen