Health care reform “is very much a women’s issue,” a part of the feminist movement, First Lady Michelle Obama told a group of women’s rights activists today.
“If we want to achieve true equality for women … then we have to reform the system,” she said.
Women, she said, pay more for insurance while earning less and are more likely to work part-time or for small companies that don’t offer health insurance. On top of that, she said, eight in 10 women are responsible for the health care of their children and their spouses, and sometimes their aging parents.
“Women play a unique and increasingly significant role in our families. We know the pain, because we are usually the ones dealing with it,” Obama said. She spoke of when her daughter Sasha had meningitis — “We were terrified” — and how her father had multiple sclerosis.
“What would we have done, as a family … if my father hadn’t had insurance?” she said.
Watch the video after the jump.
Women often face discrimination from insurers, she said. In some states, a C-section, a pregnancy or even being a victim of domestic abuse is considered a pre-existing conditions. Some insurers don’t cover basic prenatal care or preventive medicine such as mammograms and Pap smears.
“This current situation is unacceptable,” she said. “No one in this country should be treated that way. It’s not fair. It’s not right. And these are hard-working people we’re talking about, right? People who care about their kids, care about their lives. And these circumstances could happen to any of us. This is one of those, “There but for the grace of God go I” kind of situations. None of us are exempt — ever.”
Things would improve under her husband’s plan, she said, which would make it illegal for insurers to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions and require them to cover preventive care.
“We can save lives and we can save money. It’s not just good medicine, but it’s good economics,” she said.
She ended with a familiar line.
“But we have to be, what, fired up and what?” she asked.
The audience shouted back, “Ready to go!”
“And ready to go,” the First Lady said. “A little fired up and ready to go.”
