Equitable’s Meghan Vallis outlines the blind spots that plan sponsors need to address in benefits
Canadian men are dying from preventable conditions, skipping preventative care, distrusting their physicians and turning to AI for medical advice instead. As a result, the consequences are showing up in the benefits plan, notably in disability claims and a generational decline in overall men’s health.
While the reasons are layered, particularly around cultural stigma and healthcare access barriers, Meghan Vallis explains that men are far more likely to seek care when something has already gone wrong than to pursue prevention. She distinguishes two types of care, pointing to acute and preventative care. Acute care responds to something already happening like a broken bone, a rash, a cluster of symptoms whereas preventative care catches problems before they show up, through checkups, screenings, and vaccines.
According to Vallis, men tend to show up for acute care and skip preventative care because access also plays a role here. Many Canadians lack a family physician, and those who have one often can't get to appointments during working hours. Meanwhile, walk-in clinics won't take patients who feel fine, which removes the entry point for prevention altogether.
She pointed to research from Movember’s The Real Face of Men's Health 2025 Report to reinforce her point, which found that 67 per cent of men who felt satisfied in their first encounter say they are more likely to seek help in the future when needed, compared with only 26 per cent of those who felt unsatisfied.
Bias plays a critical role in men’s health
“It's a really horrible culture in North America, particularly around the idea that it's weak to seek help when really asking for help is the bravest and strongest thing anyone can ever do,” Vallis said. “It's always hard to ask someone for help so a lot of it is just what it means to be a man and being sick or needing care... People would be surprised to learn that men experience bias in getting medical care.”
Bias in healthcare isn't just a women's issue because men face it too, Vallis said, pointing to migraines as an example. The condition affects roughly 8 per cent of Canadian men, according to Migraine Canada, yet it's widely framed as a women's condition. That framing creates stigma for men who have it and discourages them from seeking treatment.
“When we frame conditions as gendered, what happens is we risk silencing people,” Vallis said.
According to Vallis, bias also affects diagnosis. Notably, a US study found physicians were less likely to diagnose men with migraines even when they presented the same symptoms as women. Bias also extends to the physical spaces where care is delivered, Vallis suggests.
“When you look around, what's there? Toys, books, kids stuff. What are the posters on the wall? Often, it's a pregnant woman or it's women's health care information. When the environments that you're going to for your health care don't look like they're for you, even though they are for you, why would you want to go into it? That prevents people from seeking care as well,” Vallis said.
Additionally, the underutilization of workplace health supports traces back to the same cultural pressures that keep men out of the healthcare system entirely. Preventative care and body maintenance like physiotherapy, massage and routine checkups can be perceived as feminine, and many men default to the position that they're fine and don't need it.
AI causes damage to men’s health information
As a result, when men can't get in or refuse to see a physician, many turn to Google or AI tools for answers, which Vallis believes is causing real damage. The Canadian Medical Association's 2026 tracking survey found that half of Canadians now use AI for healthcare guidance. Roughly 64 per cent of those users encounter false information, and people who follow AI-generated health advice are five times more likely to experience harms than those who don't.
According to Vallis, the downstream effect may be worse than the bad advice itself. She said half of people who use AI for health questions become more skeptical of their own physician's guidance, meaning even when men do make it into a doctor's office, they're less likely to trust what they hear.
Moreover, men are particularly exposed because they use AI at higher rates than women and are already less likely to see a physician in the first place. The two trends feed each other - men avoid the healthcare system, lean on AI instead, and end up further from the care they need.
Reframing masculinity around health isn't just an employer responsibility. It's a societal one, Vallis says. While employers have a role in reinforcing that shift, “not all employers have great cultures and not all employers care to try to move the needle,” she said, underscoring most HR departments also juggle competing priorities, and bigger initiatives aren't always feasible.
What plan sponsors can do moving forward
That’s why she suggests starting with structural signals, like adding paternity leave alongside maternity leave, that normalize men stepping away from work for health and family. For employers that can't do the bigger, splashier programs, Vallis says the answer is simple: start with communication.
Gender-specific communication is where Vallis believes employers should start. Men need messaging that speaks to them directly, particularly about screenings, about available supports, about resources they can access independently. While employers have warmed up to this approach for women's health, Vallis suggests the same energy hasn't been applied to men.
“I think people forget sometimes when we say diversity, equity and inclusion, that inclusion includes men,” she said. “Inclusion is all people. We need to target and call out programs for men specifically in the health care spectrum.”
To that end, Vallis offers a practical list: add erectile dysfunction drugs to benefits coverage and offerings, promote virtual care, highlight programs like pharmacogenomics, share screening information, and direct men to vetted free resources they can explore on their own time.
While she stressed that employers are uniquely positioned to support health because they deliver the benefit program, she also emphasized that “our health is a shared responsibility.”
Third-party care platforms target men directly
According to Vallis, men-specific wellbeing initiatives are starting to take shape, mostly through virtual care platforms built to serve men directly. These services address conditions like hair loss, ADHD, hormones, weight management, and erectile dysfunction, and they remove friction by allowing men to reach out by text or chat.
While employer-driven men's wellbeing programs haven't caught up yet - as most workplace initiatives remain gender-neutral – Vallis acknowledged the third-party ecosystem is moving faster.
“The male specific well-being initiatives won’t necessarily be from insurers themselves. It'll be from our third-party friends that support our offerings,” she said, adding at least one virtual care provider is preparing to launch a male-specific experience this fall.
