Closing the gap is seen as a $37B opportunity for Canada
Women’s Health Collective Canada (WHCC) has unveiled a national plan to close the women’s health gap in Canada, warning that women continue to face delayed diagnoses and care that does not fully meet their needs despite living longer than men.
The plan, set out in a report titled Leading Beyond the Gap: Closing the Women’s Health Gap in Canada, was developed by WHCC with knowledge partner McKinsey & Company Canada through a pro bono partnership, and informed by expert input from across the country. Public awareness and national outreach for the Blueprint for Action are being supported by Desjardins Insurance.
WHCC noted that women in Canada live longer than men but spend 24% more of their lives in poor health. It said these outcomes were not inevitable, but the result of systems, policies, and practices that historically had not been designed with women in mind.
“Women are not a niche population, and women’s health is not a niche concern,” said Amy Flood, executive director, Women’s Health Collective Canada. “This Blueprint is clear about what needs to change and what it will take to make progress — through coordinated action. Governments, businesses, researchers, educators, and all Canadians have a role to play. This is a collective effort, and everyone’s contribution matters.”
A roadmap to a $37-billion opportunity
The Blueprint for Action sets out how Canada could move toward a coordinated, pan‑Canadian approach that aligns governments, health systems, researchers, employers, investors, and communities around shared priorities and measurable outcomes. It emphasizes system‑wide change that cuts across jurisdictions and sectors while addressing the conditions that drive most of the women’s health gap.
“The Blueprint is our roadmap to a $37 billion opportunity — and to unlocking the health potential of 20 million Canadian women,” said Dr. Marie‑Renée B‑Lajoie, partner at McKinsey & Company and an emergency room physician. “As an ER physician, I see the cost of inaction every day: delayed diagnoses, preventable complications, lives limited not by medical science, but by systems that weren’t built with women in mind. Canada has everything we need to lead: world‑class infrastructure, research excellence, and the resources to act. This is our moment. The evidence is clear, the path is defined — now we choose how quickly we move forward.”
Four pillars for closing the gap
Within that broader framework for change, the Blueprint identifies four pillars that WHCC said must advance together if Canada is to make meaningful progress.
The first pillar, “We know,” focuses on strengthening sex‑ and gender‑disaggregated data and ensuring equitable representation in research and clinical trials. For insurers and plan sponsors, richer, sex‑specific data has direct implications for underwriting, pricing, product design and reserving, helping to reduce blind spots created by legacy models that were often calibrated on male‑dominant datasets.
The second, “We care,” centers on embedding sex‑specific clinical care pathways and expanding equitable access to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. In practice, that could translate into benefit designs that explicitly support women’s cardiovascular health, reproductive and perinatal care, menopause, and women’s mental health, with clearer pathways into appropriate virtual and in‑person services.
“We invest” is about scaling research funding and accelerating women’s health innovation by aligning public, private, and philanthropic capital. That includes opportunities for insurers, asset managers and benefits providers to back evidence‑based women’s health solutions — from digital tools to new care models — that can improve outcomes while reducing avoidable claims costs over time.
Finally, “We empower” aims to support women with the knowledge, tools and workplace conditions they need to manage their health across different life stages. For employers and group benefits providers, that speaks to the growing demand for inclusive, gender‑informed benefits and workplace policies that support retention and productivity, particularly for women in mid‑career.
WHCC said these four elements are intended to support a national effort grounded in coordination, accountability, and measurable progress, with insurers, plan sponsors and other private‑sector stakeholders seen as critical partners alongside governments, health systems and researchers, rather than a series of isolated initiatives.
Desjardins backs awareness push
Desjardins Insurance is supporting public awareness and outreach for the Blueprint for Action, helping WHCC bring evidence‑based solutions into the public conversation and mobilize action across sectors.
“At Desjardins Insurance, we believe women deserve to be supported in their health and well‑being at every stage of life,” said Chantal Gagné, president and chief operating officer, Desjardins Financial Security. “The Blueprint for Action shines a light on gaps that too many women experience and offers a clear path forward. We’re proud to support Women’s Health Collective Canada in raising awareness and helping move evidence‑based solutions into action, for the benefit of women, their families, and communities across the country.”
WHCC said it would now focus on building partnerships across governments, employers, health systems, and communities to translate the Blueprint into concrete changes in policy, practice, and investment.
