Cause Of Cancer

mrs. obama: thank you. good afternoon, everyone,and welcome. i am so thrilled you could join us today as we mark national breast cancerawareness month right here at the white house. and i want to thank jill so much for thatkind introduction, as well as her phenomenal work that she's done to educate young womenabout this disease. i think jill is one of those examples of howone passionate advocate can really make a difference, and we are grateful to you foryour leadership and the successes that you've had in your work. and most of all, i am gratefulto you for your friendship, as always. i also want to thank tina tchen, who manyof you already know for her outstanding work as director of the office of public engagement.tina, thank you so much. and i want to take

a moment -- yes, let's give tina -- (applause.)i don't want to step on your applause, tina. and i also want to take a moment to recognizeall of the survivors and the advocates who are here today who have worked so hard andfor so long to raise money and raise awareness to fight this disease, particularly vernal,joni, and venus, for having the courage to share their stories with us today. i mean,it's hard getting up and speaking about good news, right, let alone to talk about somethingthat is so personal to a crowd of strangers and a whole lot of cameras. (laughter.) so -- but it's important for them and forus to remind them that it's sharing these stories that really makes a difference. ittakes the veil off of this disease, because

it wasn't that long ago that people thoughtthat breast cancer was something to be ashamed of and to keep it a secret; something thatyou didn't discuss in polite company. some people even wondered, if you can believe itor not, whether breast cancer was contagious. and at the first fundraising lunch hostedby the komen foundation, the description of the event was written in one paper as a "women'scancer event," because the word "breast" was considered too risquã© to print. but then, people like you, all of you here,started speaking out, including two of my predecessors, first ladies betty ford andnancy reagan. they began speaking out. survivors and those who love them startedorganizing and advocating and lobbying for

more money, for more research, and bettertreatment for this disease. and then folks like venus and jill startedworking to educate and empower people to promote early detection and make sure that peoplewere getting the care that they needed. and today, because of that work, the numberof women getting regular mammograms has dramatically increased, and the five-year survival ratewhen breast cancer is diagnosed in time is 98 percent -- and that's compared to 74 percentin the early 80s. and today, we spend $900 million on breastcancer research, which is 30 times more than what we spent in 1982. so we have come a longway. (applause.) and you should all be proud of what you'veachieved to get us this far. but what we all

know is that we are not finished yet. we arenot finished yet. we know we're not finished when nearly one in eight women is still diagnosedwith breast cancer in their lifetime -- a total of one woman every three minutes -- andnearly 2,000 men are diagnosed each year as well, and that's something we don't oftendiscuss. and we know we're not finished when 40,000women a year still die from this disease. that's one woman every 13 minutes who's dyingfrom this disease today. and we know we're not finished, especiallynot when we have a health care system in this country that simply is not working for toomany people with breast cancer and too many people who are surviving with breast cancer.it's a system that only adds to the fear and

stress that already comes with the disease. and i'm not just talking about women withoutinsurance, who face the terrifying prospect, as you've heard, of having to pay the fullcost of their treatment on their own. i am talking about people in this countrywho have insurance who have breast cancer -- folks who all too often find themselvesalso paying outrageous out-of-pocket costs. according to a new report released by thedepartment of health and human services today, breast cancer patients with employer-sponsoredinsurance paid an average of more than $6,200 in out-of-pocket costs over the course ofa year. and some wound up paying as much as $10,000 or $20,000, and 5 percent with privateinsurance paid more than $30,000 a year for

their treatment. this is with insurance. these are people whoare blessed. and then there are those annual lifetime capsthat insurance companies set, where once you go over that cap -- as many women do becausesome forms of breast cancer are so expensive to treat -- then that cap makes it impossibleto pay a penny more for that treatment. and one recent survey showed that 10 percentof all cancer patients report hitting a cap on their benefits, leaving them scramblingto find alternative insurance to figure out how to pay out of pocket for the rest of theirlifetime. and then there's what happens when you'vegone through all the treatment and you're

finally in remission, which should be goodnews. you're finally in remission and you're finally feeling like yourself again. you feelwhole and happy. but then, as you've heard, you're stuck, as joni said, with a targeton your back for the rest of your life with a "preexisting condition," which means thatinsurance companies can deny you coverage or charge you higher rates for coverage -- sometimesmuch higher. that's exactly what happened to vernal, tojoni, and to venus. these women were denied insurance, and now joni and venus are eachpaying very high premiums for their coverage. and as you've heard, venus's insurance won'teven cover treatment if she has a reoccurrence. so i know that a lot of survivors like themare terrified. they are living in fear of

losing their jobs or changing jobs or evenmoving, because they worry they won't be able to find affordable insurance. and perhaps most heartbreaking of all is thefact that right now, today in america, there are people in this country who have breastcancer but don't even know it, because they can't afford a mammogram. according to ournew report, one in five women age 50 and above haven't gotten a mammogram in the past twoyears. and while that's better than it was a few decades ago, it's nowhere near goodenough. and this is not acceptable. this is not acceptablein this country. this is something that could happen to any of us.

and this is a disease, as we know, that affectsnot just those diagnosed with it, and not just those who've survived it and those who'velost their lives to it, but it is a disease that also affects those who love and knowthem -- which these days seems like almost every single person in this country. that's why it is so critically important thatwe finally reform our health care system that is causing so much heartache for so many peopleaffected by this disease. now is the time. fortunately, that's exactly what the plansbeing considered by congress right now would do. so just to be clear, under these plans, ifyou already have insurance that works for

you, then you're all set. you can keep yourinsurance and you can keep your doctors. the plans put in place some basic rules ofthe road to protect you from abuses and unfair practices by insurance companies. that wouldmean no more denying coverage to people like women we heard from today because of so-calledpreexisting conditions like having survived cancer. (applause.) because there's a beliefthat if you've already fought cancer, you shouldn't have to also fight with insurancecompanies to get the coverage that you need at a price that you can afford. (applause.) these plans mean insurance companies willno longer be allowed to cap the amount of coverage that you can get, and will limithow much insurance companies can charge you

for out-of-pocket expenses, because in thiscountry, getting sick shouldn't mean going bankrupt. (applause.) and finally, these plans will require insurancecompanies to cover basic preventative care -- from routine checkups, to mammograms, topap smears -- at no extra charge to you. and though i want to emphasize that in the end,as we all know, it's our responsibility as women to also talk to our doctors about whatscreenings that we need and then make the appointments to get those screenings, evenwhen it's inconvenient or maybe a little bit uncomfortable. it's something that we owenot just to ourselves but to the people that love us.

because we know the difference that earlydetection makes. we know that if breast cancer is detected early, it's far easier to cureand much less costly to treat. so we can save money, we can save lives, and we do rightby the people that we love. so that's how health insurance reform willwork. that's how it will help people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and thosewho've survived the disease. but first, we have to get it passed. first we have to getit passed. (applause.) but that's the hard part. we know that thereare all sorts of myths and misconceptions out there, and we know there are folks whowill do anything they can to stop reform because, for whatever reason, they want to keep thingsthe way they are.

from where we stand now, it might seem likean uphill battle. but fortunately, folks like you know a little something about an uphillbattle, right? you know a thing or two about overcoming long odds and rallying people toan important cause. now, let's remember that there was a timewhen those affected by breast cancer never could have imagined all these pink ribbonsthat would one day grace the white house, offices, storefronts, lapels. i don't thinkthey could have imagined some hulking nfl player decked out in pink cleats and pinkgloves. (laughter and applause.) i don't think they could have imagined a day when so manypeople would wear jeans to raise money for a cure. i don't think they could have imaginedhow many people would lace up their shoes

to take part in walks and runs and races allacross america. and it is my hope that if we pass health insurancereform, then 20 or 30 years from now, just imagine, our daughters and our granddaughterswon't be able to imagine a time when any woman in this country couldn't get a mammogram becauseshe couldn't afford it. (applause.) i hope that our children and grandchildren won'tbe able to imagine a time when anyone in this country went bankrupt just because they hadthe misfortune of getting sick. and i hope that statistics like one in eight and oneevery 13 minutes will be incomprehensible to our kids -- incomprehensible -- becauseof all the

strides that we've made and the work thatwe've done for this cure and for this reform. and in the end, that's really what healthinsurance reform is all about. it's not about us. it's about them. it's about the future.that is what we're fighting for. that's what we have to remember. that's what this fightis about. and that's why we're so grateful to all of you for the hard work and commitment and sacrificesthat you've made. and we look forward to working with all of you in the weeks and months ahead. thank youso much. thank you.