In an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show set to air this week, Democratic hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton announced a proposal that would provide an additional $300 million in annual federal funds for breast cancer research, including a look into the racial disparities that typify the disease.

But as we've seen in study after study, if you really want to understand the disparity between breast cancer detection and treatment in white and non-white women, you have to look to health insurance.

As it's reported at the Kaiser Daily Health and Policy Report, Clinton's proposal would use the funds to find treatments for breast cancer and study potential genetic and environmental causes of the disease. As president, Clinton told DeGeneres, she would set a goal of finding a cure for the disease within 10 years.

In terms of health insurance, Clinton also said that her proposal would seek to make breast cancer screenings more affordable for low-income women through the elimination of Medicare copayments for such tests and other measures.

But the detection of breast cancer is about many factors that relate to women's access to quality health insurance. These include regular checkups with a doctor to learn about self-exams, the opportunity to speak with a medical professional about a genetic predisposition to the disease, and access to the latest advice regarding lifestyle factors that can have an impact.

So in sum, if Clinton really wants to "study racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer," she's talking about health insurance and it's availability, or lack thereof, for women of all racial and economic backgrounds.