Women Breaking Boundaries - Exploring the Changing Landscape of Women's Health
Presented by Kate McDonald
The recently passed 2025 Reconciliation Bill brings major changes to Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs, raising urgent questions about women’s healthcare access, equity, and rights. This session will explore the legal and policy implications of these changes, with particular attention to reductions in Medicaid funding, reproductive health services, and community health resources. Special focus will be given to how these shifts may uniquely affect Virginia.
Participants will gain insight into:
- The impact of coverage changes on women, low-income families, and communities of color.
- The evolving balance of state vs. federal authority in determining access to essential healthcare services.
- Advocacy tools and strategies women and allies can use to protect healthcare access at the local, state, and national levels.
Co-Sponsored by The Springfield-Annandale Branch of the AAUW.
Adults and Teens welcome.
- Date:
- Wednesday, October 29, 2025
- Time:
- 7:00pm - 8:30pm
- Location:
- Pohick Meeting Room 1, Pohick Meeting Room 2
- Library Branch:
- Pohick Regional Library
- Categories:
- Civics Health & Wellness Women's History
- Audience:
- Adults Older Adults
Meet the Presenter
Kate McDonald represents clients across the healthcare industry on complex regulatory matters and high-stakes mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and other investments. As partner-in-charge of McDermott’s healthcare practice in Washington, DC, she provides strategic counsel on federal and state laws affecting health insurers and HMOs, with particular focus on downstream impacts for provider organizations, vendors, and reimbursement under federal healthcare programs. She has extensive experience navigating Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, and Medicaid managed care programs, partnering with health plans, providers, technology start-ups, private equity funds, and retailers to benchmark risks, solve regulatory challenges, and structure transactions involving federal and state programs. Kate also advises on state risk-bearing regulations, complex reimbursement arrangements, investments in highly regulated healthcare sectors, and DC certificate of need (CON) laws. A contributing author to key healthcare law publications, she is a frequent speaker at leading industry forums and was the inaugural recipient of the McDermott Will & Emery Client Service Award in 2019.
