Advocacy Group Pegs Women's Health Investment Gap at $360 Billion, Health Systems Take Note

The Claim

Women's Health Access Matters, a research and advocacy nonprofit known as WHAM, says the U.S. healthcare and investment sectors are sitting on a $360 billion "ghost market." That's their term for conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently than men, and that WHAM says remain chronically underfunded despite obvious demand, according to Forbes.

WHAM founder and CEO Carolee Lee told Forbes in a January 2026 interview that the sector "continued to mature throughout 2025, even amid broader market pressure." Her group's new report, titled The Business Case for Accelerating Women's Health Investment, argues the opportunity isn't in gynecology and fertility, which Lee says makes up less than 5% of the relevant market. The other 95%, she argues, is cardiology, neurology, autoimmune disease, and other organ systems where women's symptoms and outcomes differ from men's but rarely get marketed or studied that way.

Where The Number Comes From

The $360 billion figure shows up in a second, independent context too. A Healthgrades industry brief aimed at hospital marketing executives cites the same number, attributing it to EMARKETER, a separate market-research firm, as an estimate of the financial "gap" tied to underserved conditions in women's care.

Both pieces lean on the same underlying data point: women make roughly 80% of household healthcare decisions, according to figures cited by both Forbes and Healthgrades, and excluding maternity care, women use 9.9% more health services than men, per the Healthgrades brief.

That's real utilization data. The $360 billion figure, though, is a modeled estimate from an advocacy group and a market-research firm, not a number verified by a government agency, an academic audit, or an SEC filing. Readers should treat it as WHAM's and EMARKETER's calculation of an opportunity, not a confirmed dollar figure of documented losses or spending.

The Skeptic's Case

A fair critic would ask an obvious question: if $360 billion in demand is really sitting there unclaimed, why hasn't private capital already moved in? Markets are usually pretty good at finding underpriced opportunities. Venture capital has poured billions into biotech and digital health over the past decade. If women's cardiology and neurology were as lucrative and as clearly demonstrated as WHAM claims, competitors chasing returns would likely already be piling in.

That's a legitimate gap between what's proven and what's alleged. What's proven: women use more healthcare services, control a large and growing share of household spending, and were historically excluded from clinical trials until Congress mandated their inclusion in the 1990s, a shift both Forbes and the NIH's own historical framework confirm. What's alleged, and not independently verified in these sources, is the specific $360 billion dollar figure and the claim that this reflects a market inefficiency waiting to be captured rather than, say, genuine scientific and regulatory complexity in studying sex-based differences in disease.

A Different Model, For Comparison

While American advocacy groups debate how to unlock private investment in underserved health conditions, other countries are taking a heavier government hand to healthcare cost and access. A peer-reviewed study published in PMC and accepted in December 2025 examined China's centralized drug procurement and national price negotiation policy, in place since 2019, and found it improved both health outcomes and spending efficiency for the population studied, based on China Family Panel Studies data.

That's a fundamentally different approach: state-directed price controls and bulk purchasing, not private capital chasing an underserved market. China's centralized model addresses drug pricing broadly, not women's health specifically. This represents a contrast, not a direct comparison. The two dominant models on the table globally, private-market investment incentives versus government-directed procurement, produce very different tradeoffs between innovation, price, and access.

What Comes Next

WHAM's report is a pitch to investors and hospital systems, not a regulatory filing or government study. No federal agency has confirmed the $360 billion figure, and neither Forbes nor Healthgrades identified an independent audit of the number. The stronger, harder data points, that women make most household healthcare decisions and use more medical services outside of maternity care, are well documented and worth health systems' attention regardless of how the bigger dollar figure holds up.

The key question is whether private investors actually move capital toward cardiology, neurology, and autoimmune research aimed at female-specific outcomes over the next year, or whether the $360 billion number remains a market hiding in plain sight rather than one being actively unlocked.