Advocating for Women's Health: A Bipartisan Call to Action

[00:00:00] Joy Rios: Welcome to the HIT Like a Girl podcast.

[00:00:10] Liz Powell: Thank you. Excited to be here.

[00:00:12] Joy Rios: My name is Joy Rios. This is a show where we typically talk about the 30,000 piece puzzle of healthcare. And so we bring in women leaders to talk about their piece of the puzzle to share with our audience about okay, this place is complicated and complex.

How do we navigate it? How do we help each other navigate it? And by learning about each other's pieces, how can we get farther faster? And I feel like you have a huge piece of the puzzle and all of the work that you are doing with advocating for health and getting into the policy side, which is near and dear to my heart, and I'll stop talking.

How about I just let you introduce yourself?

[00:00:46] Liz Powell: Sure. So Liz Powell, I am the, I have a few different roles. So I'm the founder of G2G Consulting, which stands for Government to Growth, which is all about growing businesses and nonprofits by working with government. Many of the folks who work with are in healthcare.

So whether they're in health innovation, women's health innovation, or health access service side of things, we work with them. I'm also the co founder of the Women's Health Pack, which is the first ever bipartisan Women's Health Pack. And then I'm a co founder of the Women's Digital Health Network, which is an advocacy organization for industry that's in the digital health space.

[00:01:20] Joy Rios: And I see you wearing a ton of hats and I often wondering how the heck does she do it all? And I know that nobody does it alone, but I'm still insanely impressed by all the different rooms that you are in, conversations that you have and lead and anyway, just a huge fan.

[00:01:37] Liz Powell: Thank you. That's very nice.

[00:01:39] Joy Rios: Okay. So I have several questions and one of them is about the bipartisan aspect of the women's pack. So can we talk about that? Because I feel like it is like we talk about women's health care and issues and ways that we need to advance. But in order to make that a bipartisan conversation, some things had to come off the table that are very important about that.

[00:02:02] Liz Powell: Yes, let's go right there. So first of all, with the Women's Health Pack, and in the Women's Health Advocacy that I do, across the board, the definition of what we're trying to address are those conditions or diseases that solely, disproportionately, or differently impact the health of women over the lifespan, head to toe.

So it's that holistic. view of women's health, right? So that is far beyond abortion. So some people feel very strongly about abortion. And that is fine. This organization, to be bipartisan, to be that unifying force, we're not touching that. But we touch and strongly support contraception access, fertility services access, like those issues 100%.

And we have found by doing that, we're definitely bipartisan. We've got Republicans, Democrats, Independents, people who aren't even registered either way, coming together.

[00:02:47] Joy Rios: And it makes sense because healthcare, regardless of your political proclivity, affects everybody. We all will at some point have some sort of health condition.

And so for women in particular, cardiovascular, Alzheimer's, go down the list of things that affect women differently. And I guess maybe what are the biggest goals? Is it raising money or is it and also influence?

[00:03:10] Liz Powell: I love that question. Happy to answer that one. So really three goals. So one raise money, fund candidates who prioritize women's health and build a movement, which is like thousands and thousands of followers, activists across the country.

So those three goals, that's what we're trying to do.

[00:03:27] Joy Rios: Okay. How's it going?

[00:03:28] Liz Powell: So going really… so we had our kickoff event May 21st in Washington DC. We had five members of Congress come bipartisan. We had about a hundred men and women come together and then since then we've been able to organize across the country. And so just yesterday we had our San Francisco event.

We had almost a hundred and fifty people come together raising money, uniting our voices, talking about advocacy, and engaging in the elections and in the legislative process. And then we've got, our next event is September 25th in Boston, during the Women's Health Innovation Summit, so a lot of folks will be in town for that.

And then, we've got, we've already done a Hamptons event, we've got another New York City event, we've got Denver next week I'm speaking on a panel on women's health where we'll be promoting the women's health. I will be there as well. And then Pittsburgh is organizing an event in October. Arizona, and near Phoenix, Arizona, we're doing an event in October.

So a lot has just come together across the country. There's just a huge thirst for knowledge and action right now, and that's what we're trying to harness.

[00:04:30] Joy Rios: There's obviously a lot of attention on the big election, but there's a lot of smaller elections in the states going on as well. So what should people be on the lookout for candidates?

If they are trying to identify who's supportive of women's health issues, what are the items and, or who should they be looking at? Is there any standouts that we want to call out?

[00:04:50] Liz Powell: Yeah. So for the PAC, what we've done is we've identified the 23 house races that we call toss ups. It could go either way.

And then those that sort of lean Democrat or lean Republican. And then for the Senate, the same thing. There's about eight races in the Senate. And so all told, when you put all those races in, it's a little over 200 races that we're looking at. So even though there's 435 in the house, a hundred in the Senate.

There's really only those races that are actually in question. So we want to start with that. And then within that, what we've done is a questionnaire to all those running with key questions around women's health. So women's health research funding right now, it's only 11 percent by NIH, right?  Two percent in the VC community.

Health access and how we've got these OBGYN deserts now over a thousand counties, black women dying at three times rate of white women in maternal mortality rates. So we point out some of these issues and just say, what do you think about this? What would you do in Congress to address this? So that is how we are going to narrow down who we endorse for a typical person out there.

Those are the questions I think you should look into, whether you go on the internet and Google like their positions on things, just ask them. Especially after the end of September, they're all home, all of October, right up to election day, and they are out in the public. They're doing town halls, they're doing events, and you can politely ask, do you know that only 11 percent of NIH budget is going towards women's health?

What do you think about that? Is that something you'd address in Congress?

[00:06:14] Joy Rios: Are you involved in the endorsements nationwide? Is there a master sheet that somebody could go to and say, I want to look up my county, or my state and see who?

[00:06:25] Liz Powell: Yeah. Local level. We will not be that resource, but national level.

Yeah, that's a good idea that we put together like a kit of like things to look for type thing.  

[00:06:34] Joy Rios: So I think that before any election, I'm constantly looking at the voter guides, ones that are on online. And just, okay, what are we looking at? And some of them are really hard to research. Yes. It's not especially on the judges, that stuff is…

[00:06:46] Liz Powell: Judges are very hard.

[00:06:47] Joy Rios: Yes. Very difficult.

[00:06:49] Liz Powell: That's very true.

[00:06:49] Joy Rios: What do you, okay, so you are a lawyer, correct? And you have a lot of experience with policy. I follow a lot of value based care policy, which ultimately I'm thinking about preventive care and how do we keep people healthy out of the healthcare system.

What do, from your perspective on a policy side of things, how can people either know what is affecting them or influence policy that is being created? Be part of a conversation that is not that sexy because it's usually pretty complicated and convoluted. However, it has grand impacts, right? We are all affected by it. Is there a magic…?

[00:07:32] Liz Powell: I don't know that there's a magic one and done. There's probably never one and done when it comes to politics and policy. I think it's important for everyone out there to know who their representatives and who their two senators are. And you can go look up at www.house.gov top right corner, put in your zip code, find out who your rep is, and then just go look them up.

You can look at their own website because they'll brag about things that they're doing. And then that's how you start to familiarize yourself with what your own rep and senators are doing. There's also organizations that track and report and they have like advocacy website pages, so there's that.

And so just getting a better idea of who is representing you, I think is a really good start. And then don't be shy about sharing your opinion. You can send in letters. You just click on their website. As a constituent, you can send in letters. You can call and ask to speak to the health legislative assistant and say I care about breast cancer and breast density.

For example, they just came out with the FDA regulation requiring every woman in the country has to be notified of their breast density, their tissue because that determines whether a mammogram alone will be effective or not. They aren't actually mandating coverage, though, for the supplemental screening that is required for about 50 percent of women who have dense breasts.

You could lobby on that, for example. Or if your issue is lung cancer, you can lobby on more research dollars for that. Or menopause, we need better awareness about menopause symptoms and solutions. So whatever your issue is, I encourage you, get to know your rep, your two senators, communicate, send in those letters, call what's called the health legislative assistant, ask to have a conversation, just start to engage and you'll start to feel more and more comfortable with being an active citizen.  

[00:09:07] Joy Rios: Yeah, I think it's something that we are not that comfortable with. It is one of those, especially like this day and age, even the idea of picking up the phone for a lot, it causes a lot of anxiety. It is super intimidating. But I think that on the other line, they're obligated to listen to you, right?

And I would imagine they're going to be somewhat friendly if you're Joel on the line, but you had mentioned town halls and that's not something I've gone to maybe two or three in my lifetime. It's the kind of thing that is probably quite effective. And when we talk about like when you want to be effective, doing it as local as possible.

Can you talk about that?

[00:09:39] Liz Powell:  Yeah. So like town hall events, those when they're active in the community, that is your chance to either stand up and ask a question or talk to them before or after the event. There's always those gatherings. They want to interact with their constituents. That's how they get elected.

So as long, I'm a big proponent of being polite, never be disruptive, but polite and persistent and you can get through.

[00:10:04] Joy Rios: Okay. The question I want to ask you now is just considering what you have seen with the women's pack, the health pack. There's a lot of challenges that we have faced. There's a lot of things that we could be discouraged by.

I'd like to know what brings you hope.  

[00:10:20] Liz Powell: Oh, that's a great question. There, both sides. And what I always tell people is use that anger and hope together to take action, right? Because both are super motivating. There's lots of things to be concerned about, like the Alabama court decision, the fact that the Senate can't even come together to support access to infertility treatments.

Same with contraception. They couldn't come together on that either. So there's frustrations, and obviously we're seeing the state's laws that are happening too. However, the hopeful side is, we're seeing much more Medicaid coverage for that whole first year postpartum. We're seeing doulas get covered now in Medicaid.

We're seeing, first time, this massive legislation on menopause by a chair of a committee real power. And we're seeing breast cancer density find an early act. So there are things to be hopeful about. Plus, Hello the World, The White House Initiative on Women's Health Research and the 100 million for Women's Health through ARPA AGE.

You put that together and that's how I think you can be very motivated to take action. There's always going to be opportunities and challenges in anything in life. You got to put those together. 

[00:11:23] Joy Rios: And then, so for people that don't know about that White House Initiative and the 100 million that is being put in towards it I know that it was announced, but then what actually happened?

[00:11:30] Liz Powell: Yes. The White House Initiative on Women's Health Research was announced last fall. All the agencies had 45 days to report back on what they're doing to address women's health gaps and recommendations. And they also welcomed input from outside of government. And so I actually organized a coalition of health of women and we did letters into the White House around innovation, entrepreneurship angle, investor financing angle, and then finally access to innovation, health and equities angle.

So we had three different letters. We had anywhere from 500 to 800 people co signing each of these letters, sent all those in. Then we did a presentation to the White House. Pulling all that together. And then the White House was, “Oh my gosh, we love this. You got to go to Congress”. So we were, we're going to Congress.

So we got, we did additional letter to Congress with a thousand, over a thousand people on that letter. So we really are finding we're pulling people together to make an impact. And they do. I think that decision makers, these policy decision makers, they appreciate when organizations like us come together to synthesize for them.

Here are the key problems. Here are recommended solutions. There's things you can do about it.

[00:12:32] Joy Rios: That’s part of the conversation I think ultimately that I've been thinking a lot about, which is the people that are signing the bills or signing these, they don't necessarily understand. No, they're not doctors.

They don't know the depth of it or how it is actually impacting everybody. And so it sounds like what you're doing and a lot of your work is helping them to get there.

[00:12:51] Liz Powell: Yeah, make that connection. Yes, absolutely.

[00:12:54] Joy Rios: Okay, I feel like that's the one of the most important jobs in the world right now.

There's an awful lot of education that needs to happen. Okay, so then how can people support you in what it is that you're doing? If somebody wants to get involved or be part of this, the movement that you're creating.  

[00:13:09] Liz Powell: Love it. The Women's Health PAC is www. womenshealthpac.us, because it's about all of us.

And then for G2G, we have our own women's health advocates. So you can sign up for ours, just g2gconsulting.com, sign up for our list. That's how we'll get you informed on what's going on. So the Women's Health PAC is focused on raising money for candidates. It's like marketing around women's health on the election side.

What G2G does is advocacy. So we're actually talking directly to members of Congress, White House, et cetera. So I think that combination, you're going to be empowered to take action.

[00:13:41] Joy Rios: Okay. Love what you're doing. Thank you. This has been fantastic.

Thanks for listening. You can learn more about us or this guest by going to our website or visiting us on any of the socials with the handle HIT Like a Girl pod. Thanks again. See you soon.

Again, thank you so much for listening to the HIT Like a Girl podcast. I am truly grateful for you, and I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave us a rating or review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend?

All those things help us podcasters out so much. I'm the show's host, Joy Rios, and I'll see you next time.

I'm the show's host, Joy Rios, and I'll see you next time.