Michelle Obama Stresses Female Health

The first lady has become the voice of female health in the Obama Administration. The video below was recently released by the White House in an effort to stress the importance of female health insurance reform. Mrs. Obama makes her stance clear by saying, “The need for health insurance reform is a critically important issue for families all across the country.” Generally, women manage the health care needs of themselves and their children.

Mrs. Obama relates to the uninsured by discussing the fear of not having proper health insurance when critical health care service is absolutely necessary. She gives the example of her daughter Sasha being diagnosed with meningitis, where the Obamas had health insurance coverage, but what if they had not in this life threatening circumstance?

According to Politics Daily, ” one in 10 [breast] cancer patients said they could not get covered because of their pre-existing condition.” Insurance is supposed to provide health care coverage, not prohibit it. Insurance needs to be affordable to those who need it the most, like cancer patients.

On the health care blog iVillage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, states that in the government health insurance plan “insurance companies will no longer be able to eliminate folks based on a pre-existing condition; there will be a limit for how much they can charge for out-of-pocket costs.”

Also, Sebelius said that the extent of maternity coverage should be reformed in the government plan. With most insurance plans not covering the full cost of maternity care, reproductive health, and birth control, there definitely needs to be more female health care coverage.

On the Politics daily column Lynn Sweet writes about Mrs. Obama’s hosting of an event honoring Breast Cancer Awareness month. The fact that the first lady is strongly addressing women’s needs in the health care debate, is a crucial step to reforming female health care coverage.

---