LAS VEGAS, March 26 (UPI) -- U.S. presidential hopeful John Edwards said his wife's battle with breast cancer increased his commitment to universal healthcare coverage.
Elizabeth Edwards announced week that doctors have found her previously treated breast cancer had returned, and she will need to undergo another round of treatment for cancer in her rib.
John Edwards announced almost immediately that he plans to continue his campaign.
"When you look at all the millions of women who have had to struggle with the same sorts of struggles Elizabeth has had to deal with, many have had to struggle without what we have," Edwards said at a healthcare forum in Las Vegas.
When Edwards was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004, he said all the nation could afford was a limited plan that would cover fewer than half of the uninsured.
Now, he is running for president with a plan that would spend between $90 billion and $120 billion a year to cover all of the nation's 45 million uninsured.
"One of the reasons that I want to be president of the United States is to make sure that every woman -- every person -- in America gets the same kind of things that we have.
"Because it's not right for a women, or anyone, to have to go through this kind of struggle and have to worry about whether they can afford the medicine they need, whether they can get the healthcare that they need."
Many women with breast cancer, he said, "have had to get up the next morning and go to work."
