CEOs of Households

Last evening I had the opportunity to join many health policy women leaders in celebration of National Women's Health Week. We discussed our shared challenge of improving women's health as well as the need to simplify the delivery of healthcare.

Based on a recent Morning Consult survey of 1,000 women across the U.S., almost 60% of respondents identify themselves as the healthcare CEO of their household. And as the household’s CEO, these women take care of all of their family's healthcare decisions and activities — from scheduling doctor's visits to picking up prescriptions and everything in between. Another 27% of women take care of some of the healthcare decisions for their families. And almost 70% of women admit to worrying more about the health of others over their own health at least some or most of the time.

We know that being proactive in health screenings, staying active and eating healthy are great steps to preventing debilitating diseases. The reality is we need to make time to care for ourselves in order for the community at large to be healthy. This is analogous to pilots telling passengers to put on their own oxygen mask before helping others. As consumers we also need to demand more convenient and streamlined services. 

As a busy mom, wife, sister, aunt, friend and CEO I know there aren't enough hours in the day to do all we need to do! But, I also recognize that in order for health outcomes to improve we need better health for women to deliver better health for a better world. #NWHW