Published in 2025
222 pages
Rebecca Bloom is a graduate of Yale College and the New York University School of Law. A former workplace and benefits attorney, she has served at Bay Area Cancer Connections for over twenty-six years as a patient advocate and a healthcare, insurance, and workplace advisor for women fighting breast and ovarian cancer. Bloom was a contributing writer to and editor of Breast Cancer in the Workplace, and regularly speaks at conferences and organizations on supporting women as they navigate their health journeys. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
What is this book about?
Giving women the tools to navigate a healthcare system not built for them.
More than twenty-five years ago, Rebecca Bloom left her post as an employee benefits and compensation lawyer at one of the most well-known New York City law firms to pursue her passion for women’s health advocacy. Drawing on her expertise in the complex rules that govern employers, insurers, and medical providers–as well as the dynamics between these stakeholders–Bloom has spent decades empowering women to confidently integrate the information and focus fully on recovery and wellness.
In When Women Get Sick Bloom offers much-needed insight to women and their supporters, diving into essential topics such as building support networks, taming the insurance beast, communicating with doctors, and staying mindful. She exposes the way the healthcare industrial complex disadvantages women, and she empowers them to find the support they need.
Using women’s stories and Bloom’s own experience in the trenches, this book guides readers with examples, questions, checklists, useful information, and tips. There’s enough stress and fear surrounding cancer and other serious illnesses. Bloom gives women tools to make the best decisions for them in all areas of their healthcare journey.
“Women contending with a difficult diagnosis will find Bloom’s impassioned advocacy and solid mix of logistical and emotional guidance a boon.”–Publishers Weekly, starred review
This informative, accessible guide will be helpful to anyone self-advocating for their health or that of a loved one.” ―Library Journal
