When Money Gets in the Way of Healthcare: The Hidden Cost of Being a Woman
“Women are skipping doctors’ appointments, delaying reproductive health care, and putting off having children — not by choice, but because the numbers simply don’t add up. New research and NZ data reveal just how deep this crisis runs.”
New research from US-based women's health provider Hey Jane, surveying 700 women aged 18–44 in April 2026, has put hard numbers to what many women are already quietly living. While the data is American, the story it tells is deeply familiar here in Aotearoa — because our own statistics tell much the same story.
The cost of living crisis has dominated headlines for years — rising grocery bills, higher rents, fuel prices that seem to climb without end. But there's a quieter, more personal toll that rarely makes the front page: women are skipping doctors' appointments, delaying reproductive health care, and putting off having children — not by choice, but because the numbers simply don't add up.
Source: Hey Jane Women's Health & Economic Impact Survey, April 2026 (n=700, US women aged 18–44)
The Financial Pressure Is Relentless
Nearly all women in the Hey Jane survey — 95.6% — reported experiencing at least one form of economic pressure, with four in ten saying their financial situation had worsened over the past 12 months alone. Rising food costs, fuel prices, and general economic uncertainty were the top stressors.
NZ's forecast 2026 increase is nearly double the global average — one of the highest rates in Asia-Pacific
Here in New Zealand, healthcare costs are accelerating rapidly. Employee healthcare costs are forecast to rise 18% in 2026 — nearly double the global average and one of the highest rates in the Asia-Pacific region. Medical inflation jumped from 7.4% in 2024 to 14.5% in 2025. For women already managing tight budgets, often while working part-time or carrying the majority of unpaid caregiving responsibilities, these increases land hardest.
Kiwi Women Are Going Without Care
The New Zealand Health Survey paints a sobering picture of what this pressure looks like in practice. One in six adults (15.5%) reported skipping a GP visit due to cost in 2023/24 — up from one in eight the year before, and continuing a sharp upward trend. Women are consistently more likely than men to cite cost as a barrier: 15.1% of women compared to 10.5% of men.
Wait times are compounding the problem. One in four adults now reports being unable to see their GP in a timely manner — and this barrier falls most heavily on women aged 25–54.
Dental care tells an even starker story. Nearly half of all New Zealand adults report unmet dental needs due to cost. And when it comes to prescriptions, women aged 25–33 are more than three times as likely as men of the same age to leave a prescription unfilled because they can't afford it.
The US research reinforces the pattern: in the Hey Jane survey, nearly two in three women (63%) delayed or skipped at least one healthcare service in the past year due to cost — dental care most commonly, followed by mental health appointments and gynaecological exams. Almost half cited cost as the primary reason. For many women, healthcare has quietly shifted from a right into something that feels more like a luxury.
Mental Health Is Falling Through the Gaps
The mental health picture is particularly concerning. Unmet need for professional mental health support in New Zealand has more than doubled since 2016/17, with 10.7% of adults now reporting they couldn't access the help they needed. Young women aged 25–34 are among the most affected.
Unmet mental health need has more than doubled since 2016/17 — from 4.9% to 10.7% of adults. Young women aged 25–34 are among the most affected.
This matters beyond the immediate wellbeing impact. Financial stress and health stress amplify each other. When women can't access mental health support, the effects show up in their workplaces, their relationships, and their capacity to plan and manage their finances.
For women already managing tight budgets — often while working part-time or carrying the majority of unpaid caregiving responsibilities — these increases land hardest.
The Inequity Is Not Evenly Shared
“Women aged 25–33 are more than three times as likely as men of the same age to leave a prescription unfilled because they can’t afford it.”
The burden of healthcare cost falls disproportionately on those who can least afford it. Māori women face unmet dental care rates of nearly 56%, and Pacific women close to 58%. Māori women are more than twice as likely as non-Māori women to be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 2.5 times more likely to die from it. Pacific women experience life-threatening pregnancy complications at more than double the rate of New Zealand European women.
Sources: NZ Health Survey 2023/24, Ministry of Health · Ensemble Magazine, Women's Healthcare in NZ
New Zealand's first Women's Health Strategy, introduced in 2023, acknowledged plainly that women "spend more years in poor health than men and continue to experience gender bias and discrimination in the health system." That strategy is a beginning — but the data suggests progress remains slow.
The Invisible Financial Cost
At Athena Wealth, we understand that financial wellbeing and physical wellbeing are not separate things. When women defer healthcare, they risk larger costs down the track — both to their health and their finances. When economic pressure shapes family planning decisions (as it did for nearly one in three women in the Hey Jane survey), it flows directly into KiwiSaver gaps, career interruptions, and lifetime earnings. When women can't afford to look after themselves today, the long-term gender wealth gap widens further tomorrow.
Addressing women's financial security means looking at the whole picture. And that picture includes the quiet, compounding cost of going without.
Sources: Hey Jane Women's Health & Economic Impact Survey, April 2026 (n=700, US women aged 18–44); NZ Health Survey Annual Update 2023/24, Ministry of Health; Aon 2026 Global Medical Trend Rates Report; NZ Women's Health Strategy 2023–2033, Ministry of Health.