Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
The high cost of missed prevention
Healthcare | Public Health
January 21, 2026 – Women in the United States face greater barriers to healthcare than men, leading to preventable suffering and billions in avoidable costs each year. Although women see clinicians more often, they frequently miss essential preventive care. Improving women’s preventive care in just five settings could close the gap of an estimated 130 million missed screenings and generate up to $38 billion in net value. Delayed prevention also increases disease risk and drives more complex, costly care later. Clinical care organizations have an opportunity to improve health outcomes, access, and experience for women while strengthening financial sustainability, say McKinsey’s Jordan VanLare, Pooja Kumar, and coauthors.
To read the article, see “The $50 billion opportunity for US health systems to improve women’s healthcare,” November 18, 2025.
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Visual form
Bar Chart and Table (with Visual Encoding): horizontal preventive-screening opportunity table for five women’s health specialties.
Layout / body structure
The chart reads by row across five screening categories: well-woman visits, breast cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, and colorectal cancer. Each row moves through adherence rate, opportunity volume, revenue at stake, and net value at stake.
What is being compared
It compares preventive-screening gaps across the five specialties and links each gap to its patient volume, gross revenue opportunity, and net value opportunity for US health systems.
Measurement system
Adherence is measured as a percent, opportunity volume is measured in millions of missed or addressable screenings, and the two financial columns are measured in billions of US dollars.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Each metric column uses a horizontal bar or encoded value so rows can be compared inside the same measure. The financial columns are the largest visual blocks, and totals at the bottom sum the revenue and net-value opportunity across the five specialties.
Main takeaway from the visual
The chart shows that missed women’s preventive care represents a large health-system opportunity, not a small operational cleanup. The biggest economic value is concentrated in colorectal cancer screening, but every row contributes to the total.
Key standout values or extremes
Colorectal cancer is the largest row, with $34.4 billion in revenue at stake and $20.8 billion in net value at stake. Well-woman visits and breast cancer follow with $7.0 billion and $6.0 billion in net value, while the full set totals $58.6 billion in revenue at stake and $37.8 billion in net value at stake.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static visually encoded bar table; there are no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the preventive-screening opportunity bar table is the full visual on this page.