President Obama told ABC News that climate change quickly became an important issue for him when his daughter Malia was a preschooler and had to be rushed to the hospital with an asthma attack.

The president said this during an interview with ABC News' chief medical editor, Dr. Richard Besser on Tuesday (complete with a little nod to Obamacare):

Well, you know, Malia had asthma when she was 4 and because we had good health insurance, we were able to knock it out early… And if we can make sure that our responses to the environment are reducing those incidents, that's something that I think every parent would wish for…

Obama told Besser that they've been able to successfully treat Malia's asthma and though it has gotten better, he said, "it's not perfect... and the same thing is true with climate change." The report also pointed out that the president described feeling burning in his lungs from smog while running in Los Angeles during his college years.

The president stated that the science surrounding global warming and its subsequent health affects is "indisputable." He mentioned "more severe" wildfires and the resulting airborne particles lengthening allergy season, thus causing higher rates of asthma. Also, higher temperatures will lead to heat strokes becoming "a severe public health problem."

Obama called on health professionals and public officials to "collectively" make the connections between climate and health and "start doing something about it."