At Pacific Blue Cross, we provide health benefits to one third of the women in British Columbia—and 70 percent of our employees are women. That’s why we support initiatives that seek to improve women’s health outcomes and overall wellbeing, and why we’re shining a bright light on some of this work to celebrate International Women’s Day.

YWCA Women of Distinction Nominees Celebration: March 8^th at 6:30 p.m. (public livestream)

The Women of Distinction Awards honours extraordinary women leaders and organizations while highlighting the YWCA programs and services that improve the lives of thousands of people each year across Metro Vancouver.

We salute this year’s nominees for the Community Champion award: Balbir Kaur Gurm, Krista Milne, Jennifer Randall Nelson, and Jean Rasmussen. These women have personally identified a local community need or issue and initiated meaningful change, dedicating her own time and resources to champion her cause.

The Nominees Celebration is a pre-celebration to the Awards Gala. Anyone can tune in to watch the nominations via a livestream link. Registration is by donation. The celebration starts at 6:30pm.

Support women-led businesses at BCWHF’s Changemaker’s Market: March 14-21^st (online)

This digital community of women-led businesses, entrepreneurs, and artists across the province have generously donated their goods and services to a silent auction benefitting the BC Women’s Health Foundation (BCWHF).

The Changemaker’s Market was born in response to the impact COVID-19 has had on small businesses. We know the pandemic has had a disproportionate mental, physical, and economic impact on women. And, at 40 percent, BC has the most women-owned small businesses of any province, yet 31 percent of owners think the pandemic might force them to shut down permanently.

We’re encouraging our Pacific Blue Cross community to support the Changemaker’s Market and the goods and services from the 200 small businesses, entrepreneurs, and artists involved. Bid, buy, support, connect, or help spread the word to create change.

New Parent Boost benefit: Helping new and expecting families stay healthy

Our partnership with the BCWHF has also helped us to look for benefits solutions to close the health care gap. One of these solutions is our New Parent Boost.

We know that being a new parent is a tough job and can take a hard toll on bodies and minds. Our New Parent Boost benefit—the first of its kind in Canada—offers additional mental health and physiotherapy benefits to new mothers and families. It’s currently offered on many of our smaller group plans.

Learn more about our New Parent Boost benefit.

Pillar partnership with the BC Women’s Health Foundation

We’ve been a pillar partner of the BCWHF for the last two years. It’s been a meaningful partnership, as together we’ve been able to draw attention to women’s health care gaps in the province as well as the gender inequity we’ve seen magnified during COVID-19.

If you haven’t already checked out the two reports we’ve published, here they are again:

• In Her Words: Women’s Experience with the Healthcare System in British Columbia, which investigated health care disparities of women of all ages and socio-economic conditions across BC.
• Unmasking Gender Inequity, which dove into the economic impacts of the health care gap for women and the additional risks posed to them by COVID-19. It confirmed what many suspected — women have overwhelmingly shouldered the burden of the pandemic in our society.