Bidens host women’s health conference to focus on health care gender gap

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Women’s Health Research on Wednesday, showcasing progress in women’s health initiatives to close the gender gap in health care.

Last year, the president and first lady introduced a White House initiative to undertake what they said would be the “most comprehensive” effort any administration has taken to support women’s health research. “We’ve invested nearly $1 billion in this research on women’s health … and the women of this country are paying attention,” said Jill Biden, who has been spearheading the initiative.

Earlier this year, the president signed an executive order to address disparities in women’s health research, calling for the expansion of data collection and prioritizing funding for “diseases and conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently from men.”

The initiative has secured funding from federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department, to augment research on understudied areas of women’s health. The Pentagon is using the funding to study arthritis, cancer and chronic fatigue — all ailments that affect women in the military.

“The fact is, the health of our moms and grandmothers, sisters, and daughters, friends and colleagues affects not just women’s well-being, but the prosperity of the entire nation,” Mr. Biden said.

The Biden administration is also trying to advance research on women’s midlife health, on concerns including menopause, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and heart disease, which is the leading cause of death among women. 

Jill Biden pointed to a study by the Mayo Clinic that estimated an annual loss of $1.8 billion in the U.S. based on workdays missed due to menopause symptoms, presenting an argument that ignoring women’s health problems is damaging the nation.

“Women should not be sent away from emergency rooms. Women should not be told that their cardiovascular symptoms are stress and anxiety and that they should go home and get some rest,” said panelist Nancy Brown, the chief executive officer of the American Heart Association.

As Mr. Biden’s term comes to a close next month, Democrats have expressed concern over protections for women’s health care during a second Trump administration.

But Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told CBS News in a statement, “President Trump campaigned on making America healthy again for ALL Americans including men, women, and children, and he will deliver on that promise.”