Michelle Obama Talks Breast Cancer & Health Care

First Lady Michelle Obama discusses breast cancer in the White House flower garden.The subject was breast cancer today in the White House Jacqueline Garden. Michelle Obama, riding high on her latest USA Today poll results, said that the current health care system doesn’t work for many women with cancer.

More women are getting mammograms, the five-year survival rate is above 90 percent and research spending is at $900 million — 30 times the amount spent in 1982. But 1 in 8 women will still be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime and 40,000 women a year still die from the disease, she said, and the current health care system doesn’t work for many women who are living with the cancer. via Associated Press

The First Lady reminded Americans that one in five women age 50 or older haven’t had a mammogram in the past two years.

Extending her message onto YouTube, after her debut on ivillage, Michelle Obama spoke about the country’s need to advance health care reform, sharing again the details of a medical scare the Obamas had with their youngest daughter Sasha, then an infant, who was rushed to the emergency room amid concerns that she had developed meningitis. “That moment in our lives flashes through my mind when we talk about health-care reform,” Obama says. “How if we hadn’t had insurance, if we couldn’t afford a doctor, we might have waited until it was too late.” via Washington Post

Michelle Obama: Why Health Insurance Reform Matters to Women

Michelle will appear on Jay Leno this evening, answering 10 “rapid-fire questions” from the show’s host via satellite from the White House. A