First Lady Highlights Health Care Reform Issues Affecting Older Women

First lady Michelle Obama hosted a group of women leaders in the East Room of the White House Friday in an event designed to highlight the plight of older women grappling with the inequities of the current health care system.

“Our entire lives as women,” Obama said, “we are asked to bear much of the responsibility for our family’s health and well-being, and yet we often face special challenges when it comes to our own health insurance.”

The problems of cost and coverage only grow worse as women age, she contended. “Older women are more likely than men to face chronic illness,” she said, “but they are less likely to be able to afford the cost of treating that illness.” Obama added that recent studies have shown women over the age of 65 spend 17 percent of their income on health care.

“Our mothers and grandmothers, they have taken care of us all their lives. They’ve made the sacrifices,” she said. “America has the responsibility to give all seniors the golden years that they deserve and the secure, dignified retirement that they worked so hard to achieve,” she added.

The first lady said health insurance reform would cap out-of-pocket expenses and make it against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions.

She said that health care reform would make Medicare “more stable and more secure by eliminating wasteful subsidies and cracking down on fraud and abuse,” adding that President Obama is committed to closing the Medicare coverage gap.

“My husband believes that Medicare is a sacred part of America’s social safety net, and it’s a safety net that he will protect with health insurance reform,” she said.

“People shouldn’t have to wake up every morning worried about what would happen if they got sick. They should have a sense of security and peace of mind.”