McKinsey report underscores US$1tn potential of closing gender health gap

A new “ground-breaking” report has highlighted the US$1tn potential of closing the gender gap in healthcare.

The report, published by the McKinsey Health Institute in collaboration with the World Economic Forum Centre for Health and Healthcare, analysed at the root causes driving the gender disparities in healthcare and outlined the actions needed to address the shortcomings that limit the ability of many women to live to their full potential.

Women spend on average 25 per cent more time in poor health than men, with studies showing they fare more poorly compared with men in relation to disease prevalence, access to healthcare and outcomes after treatment.

The McKinsey report found that closing the gender health gap could reduce the time women spend in poor health by almost two-thirds and add up to US$1tn to the economy annually by 2040.

Additionally, the research showed that bridging the gender gap could lead to an additional seven healthy days for every woman each year, or more than 500 days over a woman’s lifetime.

“Women have been treated by the scientific and medical communities as though they are small men, when our entire biology is different,” explained Anouk Petersen, report co-author and health equity co-leader of the McKinsey Health Institute.

“Women’s health is often simplified to include only sexual and reproductive health, which meaningfully underrepresents women’s health burden.

“We must evolve our understanding of women’s health to look at the whole person in a much more specific way if we are going to close this gap.”

Pooja Kumar, report co-author and global leader of the McKinsey Health Institute, said: “We know where the inequities are, and we need to address them.

“Fifty-six percent of the women’s health burden is due to health conditions that are more prevalent or manifest differently in women. This is a clear signal about the need for more investment in understanding and addressing women’s health.”

Kweilin Ellingrud, co-author and director of the McKinsey Global Institute, added: “Narrowing the gap would lead to fewer early deaths, fewer health conditions per woman, extended economic and societal capacity to contribute, and increased productivity.

“Of these outcomes, the largest economic impact comes from women experiencing fewer health conditions, enabling them to avoid 24 million life years lost to disability and boosting economic productivity by up to US$400bn.”

The report found that for every US$1 invested in women’s health, about US$3 is projected in economic growth, generating the equivalent impact of 137 million women accessing full-time positions by 2040.

The authors said that unlocking this potential could be possible with “concrete” steps, such as investing in women-centric research, collecting and analysing sex, ethnicity, and gender-specific data, enhancing access to gender-specific care, incentivising new financing models and establishing business policies that support women’s health.

Valentina Sartori, report co-author and affiliated leader of the McKinsey Health Institute, said: “We can address this gap.

“Now that we have sized the opportunity, of addressing the women’s health gap, we can unleash the investment needed for stronger sex-based care delivery and R&D, and continue to generate the data that expands our knowledge and helps close the gap.”

Lucy Pérez, report co-author and co-leader of the McKinsey Health Institute’s health equity portfolio, added: “To improve health equity and foster economic growth, stakeholders across sectors and industries must develop a cooperative and comprehensive strategy to address women’s health.

“There is a tremendous opportunity to support the health of women, and a clear business case for making these investments.”