Before the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare), I was uninsurable. Hepatitis C marked me as having a preexisting condition.  This meant that insurance companies could deny me insurance. However, in a little known provision of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), I was allowed to keep my insurance plan when I left Stanford Medical Center. The cost went up significantly every year. The year before I signed up for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), nearly half of my income went to my insurance company. The deductible and coinsurance payments were steep.

Now I buy my health insurance though the Health Insurance Marketplace courtesy of the ACA. The financial hemorrhaging stopped and life was good.

Before ACA, nearly 17 percent of people were uninsured; now it is under 9 percent. Since 2008, more than 3 million children have health insurance coverage that they would not otherwise have. In my world, access to health care should be a basic human right, and it grieves me to think that there were children in the U.S. who went unaided. We hear people voice their distress over abortion, but very little about caring for them once they are outside of the womb. This makes no sense to me. Compassion extends to all, especially to those who need medical care.

We can lose this health care if the Graham-Cassidy Bill passes. Your daughter who has diabetes, your father with cancer, your brother with heart disease may all be denied insurance.  If you don’t know about this bill, click here. Call your senators now.

Don’t wait to do this. If you think that the Graham-Cassidy Bill will fail, think again. Many didn’t think that Trump would win the presidential election, but they were wrong. Is that something we can risk with health? 

This bill will be coming to a vote this week. Call now. Thank you.