Women delay care while healthcare systems optimize around assumptions that no longer reflect how people live. Former healthcare investment banker Vasanta Pundarika explains how caregiving, behavioral health, women’s health, and capital incentives collide inside American healthcare.

US healthcare does not fail when it denies care. It performs as designed. This essay involving the life of Jace Yawnick examines how insurance incentives, prior authorization, and employer based coverage shape access, delay treatment, and shift risk onto patients while increasing total cost.