First Lady on Health Insurance Reform and Older Women

First lady promotes health care reform to women, seniors

WASHINGTON —  First lady Michelle Obama sought to assure older women on Friday that efforts to overhaul health care won’t undercut the benefits they receive through Medicare, saying her husband considers the government-run program a “sacred part of America’s social safety net.” 

 Mrs. Obama, championing the health care effort at the White House while her husband travels through Asia, said women are among those struggling the most under the current system and would benefit from health care overhaul.

She said there’s been “a lot of misinformation” and she wanted to be clear that the legislation in Congress would make Medicare more stable by eliminating wasteful subsidies to private insurance and cracking down on fraud.

Mrs. Obama, addressing an audience composed of women and seniors advocates such as the president of the seniors’ lobby AARP, said women face special challenges because they often make less money and have to pay higher premiums.  Read more here.

You can read full remarks by the First Lady on Health Insurance Reform and Older Women here.