Share Your Story: Thanks to the Health Care Law...
Thanks to the health care law...
Share your story and picture on our story blog and read the stories of other Americans who are benefitting from the health care law.
- a mother who is diagnosed with breast cancer can focus on her treatment and not worry about whether her insurance company will drop her because she got sick;
- a young boy who has type 1 diabetes won't have trouble getting health care coverage because of a pre-existing condition or face a lifetime cap on coverage;
- a young woman can go to her gynecologist and get a pap smear without a referral and without paying a co-pay.
These are only some of the ways the health care law is helping women and their families. Share your story and picture on our story blog and read the stories of other Americans who are benefitting from the health care law. Also, watch our blog to see if your story is highlighted.
Want to share your story on Twitter? Tweet @nwlc.
Please note: The views expressed in the stories below are those of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the National Women's Law Center. All statements of fact in these stories have been provided by the individual authors, and the National Women's Law Center cannot and does not vouch for their accuracy. The Center will compile the stories and may use them, in whole or in part, in our advocacy efforts. The Center also reserves the rights to delete posts inappropriate and unrelated materials to the health care story blog.
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Your Stories
James Shelton
Richmond, Virginia,
I have recived a Physical Free of charge and it found that I need to go to a Kidney Specialist. The Nephritologist has found a pill that corrected the issue.
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Leona Weiss
San Anselmo, CA, teacher
My 24 year old son has a job with a small software company that does not yet offer medical insurance, mainly because insurers would not take them due to another employee and my son's pre-existing conditions. The firm had the decency not to fire these employees, but my son was without medical insurance until we were able to add him back onto our insurance plan, thanks to the changes under the Obama plan. We hope that by the time he turns 26 that he works for a company that will insure him or that there is a reasonable plan available for higher risk individuals.
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Andie D.
Brooklyn, NY,
Almost two years ago I graduated from college with honors, double minors, had been the editor of the student newspaper, a teaching assistant and the school paid to fly me to Egypt to conduct research at a UN conference. Post-gradudation I have now worked at two different companies that will not pay to give me benefits, including health insurance, despite being on the mend and only increasing revenue during my time there.Thanks to the new health care law I am permitted to stay on my father's insurance until I am 26. I am now 23 and that gives me a great buffer to try to gain employment somewhere that will give me benefits instead of leaving me out to fend for myself and pay hundreds of dollars a month for insurance. It is really terrifying that in the United States of America, what is supposedly the best country on the planet, we have to worry about HOW we will pay for our illnesses instead of focusing on getting better. We are truly a sick nation.
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Michelle Fanroy
Fort Wayne, Indiana, mother of six
My husband suffers from a heart condition and sorrocis of the liver here he sits with our youngest son. My husband is 62 and disabled, he recieves medicare as he's a disabled vetran of the Vietnam War. Were it not for medicare and the new Obamacare things being put in place he would not be sitting at our sons award ceremony. The medicines cost alone we could not afford, to get and his life would of been forefit had he no access to the care and insurance he requires to maintain any quality of life.
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Elizabeth Campbell
Vancouver, Washington, Homemaker
Within the past year I have received both a mammogram and a Pap test with no co-pay. This represents a significant savings to me, and I appreciate it.
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Harvey
Chadron, NE, Librarian
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Anne
, NV, semi retired
I stopped working, namely because my employer was having finacial issues. My COBRA would have been $1,300/month from Blue Cross. Ha! So I opted to go bare. I didn't know where to find insurance. I ended up in the hospital for 5 days and even though I was given a break due to lack of insurance, it still cost me $10K out of pocket. OUCH. Then, I heard about the PCIP and applied. This is part of Obamacare - Pre-existing condition insurance plan. I was 63 yrs. at the time. Now, I have basic coverage for $362/mo. Easy to apply.We desperately need all Americans to be covered. I am all for a national single payor program. It is only "Christian" and decent. Obama and the Dems aren't perfect, but they are the only game in town. It is time to stop voting for the Repugs. They don't give a darn about you!
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Lori
, IL, school crossing guard
So far the health care reforms have done nothing for me. I am hopeful that when the medical reforms are fully implimented in 2014 I will have some coverage. I haven't had medical coverage of any kind in over 17 years. Illinois state is currently tightening rules to eliminate people who currently get Medicaid from being eligible for Medicaid, which as a childless single adult I don't even qualify for even now. I have two more years to wait IF the state actually expands to include folks like me, as the new reform law says they must. And if Republicans take the White House this fall I can kiss that glimmer of hope for coverage goodbye, as they promise to recind the new health care law. There is coverage for people with pre-existing conditions available in Illinois now, but the premiums are over $4,000 for one person per year, which in my opinion is NOT affordable for the average family. I live on less than $4,800 a year working as a school crossing guard (first job I've had to survive a recession in my entire life) so there is no way I can afford this. I have asthma and allergies, with a strong family history of heart disease. I'm supposed to be on 4 different medications which cost over $500 a month out of pocket but I do without and pray I don't have an attack. My sister finally now has coverage through Medicaid as she's handicapped. Prior to that she couldn't find coverage anywhere at any price that would cover her conditions.What am I to do if I'm forced to buy coverage I can't afford? And if I don't buy coverage I then get fined? Do I go to jail then simply for being too poor? I have a strong feeling the subsidies that are talked about too help poor people buy coverage won't be nearly enough to cover the cost at my income level. And I have no transportation to get to a medical facility, so even if I have coverage how do I get there to use it?
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Someone
, NJ,
You asked "Have You Benefited from the Health Care Law"?My answer, plain and simple NOMy Husband and I are on Permanent Disability, You don't receive Medicare for 2 years after your awarded Disability, What is up with that???? HOW can a person wait 2 YEARS???? Do you not see something wrong with that?I guess we MAKE TO MUCH to qualify for any help (with Medical Insurance) but yet We DO NOT MAKE enough to even live, we are losing our Home, Have NO HEALTH INSURANCE, Medications are enormous in cost let alone the cost of a Doctors Visit, tell me how is the non existent Middle Class supposed to live????Why doesn't EVERYONE in Washington have to have the same Health Care WE DO? You can bet your last penny things would change. So again in answer to your question...NO I MOST CERTAINLY NOT BENEFITED FROM ANYTHING from this Administration.....
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Anna
Portland, OR, Financial Analyst
My eldest son, who is just turning 21 this year, has had clinical depression and ADD and continues to have difficulty holding down a job or concentrating enough to do academic work, so college has not been an option for him and he has struggled to find his way. My insurance stopped covering him when he was 19 because he was not in school. Fortunately the ACA passed earlier that very same year and within a few months he was covered again because the first thing it did was extend coverage to unmarried children up to age 26. What a relief. Some kids take longer to become adults than others. My son can get the medical help that he needs and we do not need to pay outrageous out of pocket amounts. (In the picture, he is on the right. We love to backpack in our beautiful state of Oregon, and this picture was taken last summer in the Siskiyou mountains.)
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