What The Affordable Care Act Did For Me

For all the people who want to repeal the ACA (Obamacare) without a replacement, keep in mind that you or someone close to you may be in need of it one day. This is my story: I am an architect. I worked at several architecture firms for many years. The first eleven years I worked, I had no health insurance. I was considered “contract” labor even though I worked in their offices full time like any employed person would. I don’t knock them for it, the architects that hired me didn’t have health insurance either, even though they were in their 50-60’s. I looked into private insurance but simply couldn’t afford it. The pay wasn’t great but I had to live and was paying off student loans for those first 10 years. When I gained enough experience, I decided to look for a job that had health insurance. I got one. I was employed for about 4 years with this firm until 2008. In that time, I got married to a wonderful man and we had a baby. The recession also started around that time, so when they looked at who to lay off, the lady with a new baby was the one that needed to go. Luckily, my husband had health insurance too so I was able to get on his plan. I found another job at a firm, but with no health insurance because I again would be considered contract. This was fine because of my husband’s insurance. Then I got pregnant again. Then I was laid off again, at about 5 months into my pregnancy. After having my second child, I starting have painful aches all over my body. I felt sick with chills that would come and go and I was abnormally fatigued. In the mornings, my hands would swell so badly that I no longer had wrinkles at the knuckles in my fingers and my feet hurt so badly, I was barely able to walk. I was in immense pain whenever I moved for the first 3 hours of the day until it would slowly subside but really never go away. After many doctors visits, I finally was told I had Rheumatoid Arthritis. It was severe. So I was put on medication that cost about $2000 a month. With that medication, I was able to function again. I was able to hold my children. I was able to fix my daughters hair, tie their shoes and the pain finally started to go away. After about a month of getting my diagnosis, we received a diagnosis of autism for my son. He was four years old, not talking much and actually lost words so we decided to get him evaluated. It was one of the biggest heartbreaks of my life. You think you’re ready to hear something like that about your child but no. It's devastating. He was able to receive ABA therapy. The insurance company told me it was because of the Affordable Care Act that insurance companies were required to cover it. The co-pay was about $190 a week but we were determined to have him talking to us and we received help from his grandmother. After he turned five, we decided to start him in school. His therapy decreased along with the co-pay to about $45 a week. Then my husband was laid off... well, partially. They kept us on the insurance while my husband worked for them under contract occasionally when they needed him. It was very generous of them because the premium was about $1500 a month and rising. In that time, he began taking on other clients. I wasn’t able to get full time employment because my son needed to go to therapy and I couldn’t leave him in aftercare at school. But I also started being able to get clients because of a website that sends me leads for people that need architects. After a rough year, we had enough clients that we could pay our bills. Then my husband was dropped off of the insurance. We applied for insurance through the ACA website and it was indeed affordable. And since we made so little the previous year, the kids qualified for LACHIP, which in Louisiana, is Medicaid. ABA therapy for my son was then fully covered with no co-pay. We’re still not able to save money but we are able to pay our bills and slowly pay off the debt we accrued in the rough previous year. Now there are people who want to take away the only means we have to afford our insurance. Price, Trump's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services Department also wants to do away with the CHIP program. Why on earth is that a good idea? Is he saying that children shouldn’t have health care if their parents can’t afford it? I shouldn’t have treatment for RA, because I am self employed? People really need to think bigger than what is in front of them. You may be in a good place, with a good job but that could easily go away. What happened to empathy in this country? We need a system that helps people, all people. With the rising costs of hospitals and doctor visits, drugs and insurance, I think the only way to correct it is through universal, single payer, government funded health insurance. Perhaps they could start with the public option and expand it to everyone.