Michelle Obama: Healthcare reform must pass

First lady Michelle Obama was interviewed by CNN's Larry King on Tuesday where she said that there was no option but to pass healthcare reform.

"We don't have a choice," she told King. "When we look at these statistics, we're spending billions of dollars on preventable diseases, and new health care legislation could go a long way to improving prevention, first and foremost."

President Obama has said repeatedly that the status quo is not sustainable and that rising healthcare costs were the main culprit in rising federal deficits. The Medicare program is the nation's largest unfunded program.

"So we have to get this done and I'm hopeful that Congress will come together, that the American people will recognize that doing nothing is absolutely not an option," Michelle Obama said.