Guess what. We’re not going back.
For most of American history, preventative heath care was a privilege only for those who could afford it or were lucky enough to get coverage through their place of employment. On March 23, 2010, that finally started to change.
It was six years ago today that President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, into law. That’s why today we’re highlighting a few powerful stories of Ohioans whose lives were forever changed by access to affordable health care.
- Thanks to the ACA, 20 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage.
- Obamacare has driven the uninsured rate below 10 percent — for the first time since we started keeping records.
- More than more than 240,000 of our citizens signed up and got covered through the Health Insurance Marketplace in the past two years.
- With the Medicaid expansion, nearly 650,000 Ohioans have gained coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
This isn’t just hype. You’ll hear one such story from Tracy — who was able to pursue her dreams and start her own business because of the Affordable Care Act. And Tim and Jennifer, parents of an autistic son who were able to avoid issues with lifetime maximums and pre-existing conditions.
Hear from real Ohioans, in their own voices.
Tracy’s Story
I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My family is comprised of bold individuals who believed in making their own luck. My great-grandmother Clara was brave enough to raise two boys on her own as a divorcee during the Great Depression. She walked miles every day to the Huber plant in Marion, Ohio. In the winter, she would take breaks warming herself on front porches along the way. All the while my grandfather was stoking the coal furnace and assuming the role of man of the house at the age of seven. Both my grandfather and his brother went on to college and opened an interior design business together. Needless to say, I was raised with a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” concept of the American Dream.
In the absence of good job opportunities I decided to do what people in my family do — make my own luck.
I went to college, then grad school, put in my time, worked two and three jobs at a time, and by the age of 23 I was working at the Detroit Institute of Arts, one of the world’s truly significant museums. My family was so proud, and I was so grateful. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t pause in Rivera Court and marvel that a little nobody from Marion, Ohio, worked there.
At the age of 24, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and although it was a bit of a blow, I adapted and honestly it didn’t occur to me that this one thing could change the whole course of my life.
But life happened, as it does sometimes. In a brief span of six months I lost my job, my husband, and my home. I never dreamed I’d have trouble finding a job, but my unemployment ran out, and so I returned to Ohio. I actually moved into Great Grandma Clara’s former home.
In the absence of good job opportunities I decided to do what people in my family do — make my own luck. I created a business plan, contacted the SBDC, worked on budgets. But we hit a snag — health insurance. I contacted an insurance broker, filled out the applications, and was surprised when she couldn’t find coverage. At the time my diabetes was under control and my medication cost only $10 per month without insurance. So I tried another broker, and another. After applying to 20 insurance companies, even the high-risk ones, it became clear — no one would insure me.
So I tried another broker, and another. After applying to 20 insurance companies, even the high-risk ones, it became clear — no one would insure me.
My SBDC counselor advised that I’d be better off working somewhere that offered insurance. So there I was with a masters degree forced to take a low wage job and give up on my dream. I knew I could create something wonderful, but at the expense of my health? I couldn’t do that. I was flabbergasted. What happened to the American Dream? My American Dream?
I worked a string of soul-sucking jobs, one with no sick days, another where the owner tried to force me to date his friends, all the while feeling powerless.
I got married, an instant family situation, became a stepmother, shortly thereafter had a baby, and in the middle of it all found a good job again. The ACA passed, but all the wrangling in Congress was worrisome, I had a hard time believing it would stick. I was bitter.
Then when my son was 18 months old I lost my job again. My husband’s small company had three employees with cancer, so switching to their insurance would have been so costly that we’d only have $400 a month left to live on. Our mortgage alone was more than double that. Once again we tried to get private insurance. No dice.
In the end we insured my husband Lou and the kids, and I went uninsured for a year hoping and praying that the ACA wouldn’t be repealed.
I freelanced, found a way to feed our family of four on $200 a month, and miraculously ACA was not repealed. With a light at the end of the tunnel I contacted the SBDC again, I created a business plan, and in July 2014 I launched two businesses in Downtown Mansfield. Graziani Multimedia and Tog Loft are my American Dream. I could not be happier, and the ACA is the only way I could be where I am today.
Tim and Jennifer’s Story
Our son has autism. He has made an unbelievable amount of progress, to the point that next year, he will be in a regular education classroom full-time. However, it is doubtful that such progress would have been possible without Obamacare.
…we have peace of mind knowing our son will continue to receive the therapies that have made such a huge impact on his life and we won’t be bankrupted by the cost.
When Obamacare opponents speak out, it’s about the health insurance mandate. However, they conveniently forget Obamacare’s prohibition on annual maximums, lifetime maximums and pre-existing conditions.
It is likely that we would have either hit our maximums or would be rapidly approaching them. Instead, we have peace of mind knowing our son will continue to receive the therapies that have made such a huge impact on his life, and we won’t be bankrupted by the cost.
Michelle’s Story
Before the ACA came into effect, I struggled trying to find affordable health insurance. With receiving notices stating that I would have to pay fines if I could not find health insurance, I felt myself being backed into a corner. Without health coverage, I would have to pay an astronomical amount of money for medical bills on top of paying for fines for not having insurance. After talking to a few of my friends, they gave me some information on where I could find affordable health insurance.
Without the ACA, I don’t know if I would be where I am today.
The ACA has allowed me to, not only, find insurance that I could afford, and gave me the option to choose the right plan that fit my medical needs, the ACA helped me protect my family’s financial future. Being eligible for Medicaid has allowed my wife and I to save money, get the medical care that we both need and stay well within our monthly budget.
Without the ACA, I don’t know if I would be where I am today. Today, I am covered by my wife’s insurance and do not need Medicaid coverage, I am very grateful for the coverage I had, and I hope that others will look into the ACA and find coverage that fits their needs.
Colleen’s Story
When I was six weeks old, my pediatrician told my parents that they discovered a small heart murmur in my aortic valve. I was referred to a pediatric cardiologist, who told my parents that the older I got, the more likely it would become that I would grow out of the murmur. For the next 23 years, I remember going to the cardiologists office for echos, EKGs, and other tests every six months, only to see my test numbers continue to decline over the years.
My condition was pre-existing, and because I was under 26-years old, I was able to stay on my parent’s health insurance to help cover the costs of the doctor’s appointments and surgery itself.
The pressure in my heart chambers was progressively growing more unequal, and what had once seemed like a problem that would go away as I got older had turned into a serious health issue that was prohibiting me from living a normal life. In March of 2013 I checked into the hospital for a full day of tests — a stress test, CT scan, echo, and EKG, and by August of 2013 the decision for open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve was made.
In December 2013, I was admitted for an eight-hour surgery to replace my aortic valve and my pulmonary valve, and after five days in the Cleveland Clinic cardiac unit, I was released and went back home for the long eight-week recovery.
Because of the Affordable Care Act, I did not have to go into serious debt to receive this life-saving surgery. My condition was pre-existing, and because I was under 26-years old, I was able to stay on my parents’ health insurance to help cover the costs of the doctor’s appointments and surgery itself. I am certain that without those protections in place, I would not have been able to receive this procedure or pay for it without serious financial assistance and a lifetime of debt. I don’t believe that any American should have to go into debt to receive life-saving health care, and I hope others look into the ACA as a great, affordable health care option.
Martha’s Story
I’m a physician — an internist — and a novelist. In 2001, at age 45, I developed chest pain and shortness of breath with exertion. I was a pre-menopausal woman who exercised, married with four sons ages 6 to 12, and had not a single cardiac risk factor. I thought: Thank goodness I’m a doctor, or I might worry about this silly chest pain! It turned out I had a narrowing at the beginning of the big artery down the front of the heart. My cardiologist put a stent in. He couldn’t open a smaller blockage that continued to cause me chest pain, but after a year of medication my angina went away.
I had left my private practice group to spend more time with my family and writing. Once my stent was in, I decided not to return to medicine other than as a volunteer at a clinic for patients without health insurance. My personal goal was to survive through my sons’ Bnei Mitzvot.
We’re not talking points, we’re people. And we are reminders that everyone’s future is uncertain. Even the healthiest American could be one diagnosis or accident away from a different, difficult world.
I did, no problem. I exercised and took my meds and lived a busy life and almost forgot I had heart disease, which is why I shocked myself by bursting into tears in a restaurant last November when my husband told me that, with a $10, 000 deductible, our family’s health insurance premium was jumping from $500 to $2500 a month.
I was the problem. My husband’s previous health insurer had folded. Without me, our family’s rates would stay the same. Alas, three insurance agents couldn’t find any health coverage for me alone. My coronary artery disease was a “pre-existing condition.” It’s an interesting experience to know that health insurers don’t want you. It feels like: You?? You couldn’t pay us enough to take on you. My husband and I decided I should wait the required six months without health insurance and apply for the Obamacare “pre-existing condition” coverage pool.
Thank goodness for Obamacare, I thought. Early last June, near the end of my six months without health insurance, I was alone in New York City attending a book conference. Out walking one morning I found myself bumping into buildings on my right. Odd, I thought. To my left I saw a set of twins in matching shirts and ties walking toward me. New York, I thought. Then I saw more twins. I knew what was happening, even the section of my brain likely involved. I thought, “I’m like that lady scientist who wrote a book about her stroke.”
Happily, my symptoms went away. I had not had a complete stroke but a temporary ischemic attack — a warning. The next morning, in the airport security line, I had another TIA, but this one lasted five minutes instead of an hour. And once I got home to Dayton, the support was tremendous. I got chicken and noodles and good advice (“Slow down!” “Listen to your body!”) Doctor friends saw me as a patient and didn’t bill me. I was so lucky. But, but…
At the same time I was recuperating from my TIAs and adjusting to new medicine, the country was waiting for word on the Supreme Court’s decision on Obamacare. Clearly, after TIAs on top of coronary artery disease, no insurer would ever want me. I fretted: what if Obamacare was overturned and its “pre-existing condition” coverage disappeared? What if I had a stroke and bankrupted my family? Would divorcing my husband help my family financially? (We still had kids in college.) Wouldn’t it be better for my family if I simply died?
Back when I was a physician in a private care practice, I didn’t understand the despair and guilt and hopelessness a sick person often feels. Sickness can be brutal. For strength after my TIAs I decided to go again to Israel — as I had the previous four summers — to volunteer teaching English. What else would I do all July — sit around and wait for a stroke? In Israel I prayed at the Western Wall for a friend with leukemia whose health insurance coverage was about to run out. Of course, I was also praying for myself. When I turned from the wall to meet up with my fellow volunteers, an Israeli friend held up his smartphone and said, “Good news! The Supreme Court is keeping Obamacare!”
And, indeed, early in August I got a big white envelope from Medical Mutual of Ohio, complete with a letter welcoming me to their high-risk insurance pool. They wanted me! Amazing. I felt like a regular person. Now, I hear Obamacare being called “socialist” and “evil”; I hear politicians say that health insurance in this country is not really a problem. I wonder, often, what we as a society want. We are humans with imperfect bodies and souls, and we live in an imperfect world. Shouldn’t we help each other?
We sickies need to tell our stories. We’re not talking points, we’re people. And we are reminders that everyone’s future is uncertain. Even the healthiest American could be one diagnosis or accident away from a different, difficult world.
Essay published on the op-ed page of the Dayton Daily News, October 22, 2012
The Affordable Care Act is worth celebrating
These stories show just a few of the people whose lives have been made better with access to affordable care. Because of the Affordable Care Act:
- Young people can stay on their parents’ insurance up to age 26.
- The ACA closed the Medicare Part D “donut hole” and is saving seniors nearly $2,000 every year on their prescriptions.
- Women can no longer be charged more for their coverage simply because they are women.
- Insurance companies can no longer deny someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
These are big benefits to the Affordable Care Act, and they are certainly worth celebrating.
We must stop fighting partisan battles over health care. There’s too much at stake to go backward. Let’s focus on the future and get even more Ohioans covered.
President Obama, thank you for the Affordable Care Act.
