Insights and Takeaways from Women in Global Health Seattle’s Quarterly Meeting

Two weeks ago, I attended my first in-person Women in Global Health Seattle’s quarterly meeting at the Gates Discovery Center. I’d been following the group for about a year to learn more about the global health space, but had yet to interact in any meaningful way. 

This most recent gathering seemed up my alley, though, with speakers lined up to talk about the intersection of women’s health and business, how to advocate for better sexual health and menopause-related care, and how employers can support women from menstruation to menopause. 

Dawn Trudeau, interviewed by King 5’s Mimi Jung, kicked off the event. I can’t say I’d recognize one of the Seattle Storm co-owners if we passed each other in the aisle of Trader Joe’s, but she’s since gained a new fan. Her responses to Jung’s thoughtful questions struck me as someone who truly “walks the talk,” so to speak.

She and her partners take no profit from the Storm.

Instead, they funnel all earnings back into the franchise. When Donald Trump took office in January 2017, Trudeau and her partners started to speak out about the issues that mattered most to them—reproductive rights, gender equity, and healthcare access. They continue to support Planned Parenthood NW and women’s heart health by donating to Swedish Heart & Vascular Institute.

Contrary to what many people assume, Trudeau reminded the audience that abortions represent a fraction of the necessary health services Planned Parenthood provides to low-resourced folks. In the process, the Storm lost some season ticket holders, but their current valuation of 150 million (up from 10 million when they first purchased the team in 2007) speaks volumes. 

Then followed Dr. Kelly Casperson, a urologist and host of the podcast “You Are Not Broken,” also interviewed by Jung.

I loved every minute.

Dr. Casperson was honest and reflective with a dry, witty humor that underscored the stark health disparities discussed. For instance, she quipped that if men lost their testicles at 50, we’d have a national vaccine.

She also shared that her fellow urologists encouraged her to find a fellowship post-residency, or she’d be stuck seeing the more “difficult” patients (read: women). 

Dr. Casperson emphasized that women, their employers, and their communities need to understand that hot flashes and fatigue do not encompass menopause. Rather, the menopause transition represents a massive shift that has profound implications for our hormones and how we exist in the world, impacting brain health, eye health, heart health, and more.

Which makes loads of sense since it’s quite literally one of our organs shutting down.

We need to better understand what’s normal and what’s not normal and actionable solutions to maintain our health and wellbeing. 

The final conversation with Premera and Mercer began well, and I appreciated the information shared overall. The Medical Director from Premera shared personal stories and was clearly a women’s health equity advocate. One issue she highlighted that I’d not heard put together regarded the delay in women’s health innovations due to the backsliding of abortion access. Instead of moving forward, healthcare organizations and insurance companies must now determine how to best protect their patients’ rights to their own health decisions. 

Most of what they spoke about that evening, however, related to corporate, employer-sponsored health insurance plans. But as someone who receives health insurance through Washington State’s insurance market, I felt very little of the conversation applied. For those of us without insurance through a workplace, we must contend with sky-high deductibles, high out-of-pocket costs, and often reduced coverage and access. 

We don’t have employee resource groups (ERG) advocating for expanding health plan coverage. So, it felt a bit as if they were speaking only to audience members who’d achieved a certain level of health insurance stability. 

Toward the end, they opened the floor for questions. One attendee asked about insurance plans not paying for a specific diagnostic blood test for cancer markings. In response, she received a broad, runaround answer about such tests leading to false positives, which can lead to non-medically necessary care, which can cause excess stress and—the kicker—extra costs for the insurance company.

Another attendee raised questions about the lack of insurance coverage for doulas. From what I gathered, the response was to pay for a doula out of pocket or rely on a new type of health credit card an employer can provide as part of the company’s insurance plan.

The final question raised a timely topic: egg retrievals. First, we learned it could cost more than $20,000 out of pocket for a round of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), the typical end result of an egg retrieval.

However, we also learned that most women who decide to retrieve their eggs do not use them. The Medical Director suggested that women should instead focus on whether egg retrieval is right for them based on their health history and career goals. 

Not whether insurance will cover the cost.

Not whether that may change in the near future.

Not whether the astronomical expenses will become more affordable for ALL women. 

Perhaps some of the responses stemmed from her place of work. Insurance companies, for example, aren’t known for the most upright of practices when it comes to universal, fair coverage. Though they purport to support women’s health and greater health access, their current, restrictive policies, reduced coverage plans, and high costs do not allow women freedom of choice over their healthcare.

To give you an idea of health insurance’s history of denying women healthcare access, here are a few fun facts:

• Until the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, a majority of individual health insurance plans did not cover maternity benefits.

• One-third of women who applied for individual plans prior to the ACA were either flat-out denied, charged higher premiums than men, or had needed services excluded from their plans.

• The National Women’s Law Center found that “many US insurance companies [routinely denied] women access to services guaranteed by the 2010 Affordable Care Act” in a 2015 report.

• A 2021 Preventative Medicine Report found that “individuals covered by employer-sponsored health insurance continue to be denied coverage of preventive services” among people making reproductive healthcare claims.

Or perhaps I bristle when people defend health insurance decisions due to the number of articles I’ve read, editions of Wendell Potter’s newsletter received (it’s worth a subscription), and personal experience watching a sibling’s medically necessary claims get denied over, and over, and over again.

It’s little wonder why people search for or create alternative care options. Even still, some of these innovations stall due to a delay in or lack of insurance billing codes, which can take up to a year to receive.

However, all in all, I had a fabulous time.

It was lovely to sit surrounded by other women who care deeply about global health access and advancing health equity.

Listening to the speakers also reminded me that, even if I do not fully agree, that does not mean I must write them off or disengage. We are complex people, and organizations are complex places run by those same complex people doing their best.

What matters most is that we continue working toward ensuring all women and girls receive the healthcare they need and deserve to not only survive, but thrive.