The Health Insurance Coach

From what we've heard in the news, you'd think that only Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are trading jabs over health insurance plans, but apparently, this isn't the case.

While her husband is no longer running for president, Elizabeth Edwards hasn't shied away from criticizing John McCain's health plan.

According to ABC News, Edwards has criticized McCain for not offering a universal health care plan, or at least one that would make it illegal to reject consumers based on a pre-existing condition. Currently, anyone diagnosed with a major illness will either pay more money for health insurance, or be denied coverage altogether.

She has also criticized him for enjoying the coverage of a federal health insurance plan for the majority of his life, a plan that McCain does not endorse opening up to the public.

Edwards has been recently diagnosed with incurable breast cancer. And, since McCain was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2000, according to Edwards, neither she nor McCain could get coverage under the health insurance plan McCain proposes to endorse.

Elise Patkotak's recent article for the Anchorage Daily News takes a humorous slant on an otherwise frustrating truth - Americans need affordable health insurance that makes sense, and that will protect them when they need it.

In the article Patkotak criticizes the State of Alaska's retiree insurance, which is what legislators receive when they retire. One would think that these people get good coverage.

But then again, they might not. There's mention of colonoscopies that aren't covered unless you already show signs of colon cancer, mammograms that are no longer covered if a woman has to have her uterus removed, and even bone marrow testing that doesn't get coverage unless the match is a positive.

All of this speaks to two profound truths in this country: first, ours is a health care system devoted to the treatment of disease, not its prevention, and even then only if you can afford it.

And the other is this, that we need affordable health insurance that is both understandable, and comprehensive. What's the point of paying for it if it no one knows what it covers, and even then it doesn't cover everything you need?

Some "cafeteria-style" plans offer affordable health insurance that the consumer can select based on their needs and their wallet. However, there needs to be a lot more of those around before everyone can enjoy the kind of care they deserve.

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.