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An Impatient Patient: Elizabeth Edwards passionate about improving health care
Journal photo by David Rolfe
Elizabeth Edwards discusses the disparity in health care during a four-day conference sponsored by Winston-Salem State University.
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Published: November 6, 2009
Shortly after Elizabeth Edwards revealed in 2007 that her breast cancer had metastasized, she delivered a speech in Cleveland then sat down at a table to autograph books.
A black woman approached Edwards and whispered in her ear: "My name is Sheila, and I'm afraid for my children. I have a lump in my breast, and I don't have money to go to a doctor."
Edwards, a health-care advocate and the wife of former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, was the featured speaker yesterday at a luncheon in Winston-Salem on health disparity.
She said she continues to make health-care reform one of the causes of her life because of such people as Sheila.
"I felt like this woman was giving me a job to do," Edwards said. "I have the great benefit of having a large microphone."
Winston-Salem State University's Center of Excellence for the Elimination of Health Disparities is putting on the four-day conference, which is featuring prominent health-care experts from around the country.
Edwards spoke about disparities in breast cancer, a disease that she has publicly battled. Edwards was found to have breast cancer in 2004 and underwent a lumpectomy and chemotherapy. In March, 2007, during her husband's campaign for president, she revealed that her cancer had returned and was terminal.
A few minutes before taking the stage, Edwards sat in a small room at the Embassy Suites and took a short break from reviewing her speech to talk about her health.
"I'm feeling well, and I'm getting my treatments regularly," Edwards said. "My back hurts sometimes, but I'm almost 60, I have two young children, and I've been moving furniture in my new furniture store so exactly why my back aches is unclear. But I'm feeling very hopeful about my long-term treatment program."
With so much going on in her life, Edwards said that health care remains a priority.
"I have an enormous advantage," she said. "I have good insurance, and I live near a top medical facility. And I know these things are not widely available to other populations."
In her speech, Edwards talked about why breast cancer claims so many black women. Although the incidence rate is higher among white women, Edwards said that black women are 77 percent more likely to die of the disease.
"That's an astounding number and simply unacceptable," she said. "Yet, we accept it all the time."
Edwards said that biological and socioeconomic reasons are at the root of the high death rate. Black women are more likely to get basal-like breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form of cancer, than white women.
More testing is needed to better understand why this is so, however, research dollars can be scarce when it comes to diseases that affect minority populations.
Black women are also less likely to be screened for cancer and less likely to understand the results of a screening.
"Is it because the information was delivered in a faulty way or was it because it was received in a faulty way?" Edwards asked. "There are a lot of places where we fall down."
Edwards said she is encouraged that overhauling the nation's health-care system has taken such a prominent role in the national conversation.
"I'm delighted that we're on the cusp of a health-care breakthrough," she said. "What we considered to be a pipe dream when we talked about in 2007, is about to be a reality in 2010."
lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
727-7420
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