*45 Wants Stories About How "Obamacare" Has Affected American's Lives...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/obamacare-share-your-story
Here's my response:

I am so glad that you are opening this for people to share stories about how Obamacare has affected Americans!!

I have been disabled for the last fifteen years, and as a (divorced) single mother of two with no other income than Social Security, qualifying for Medicare and Medicaid (as MaineCare) has made it so that I don't have to choose between getting the health care and prescriptions I need, or putting food on the table.

Before Obamacare, I was able to see my mental health care professional only a certain number of times, and only after pre-approval and a referral from my primary care physician. For years, I went without proper treatment as my PCP tried to manage my psychiatric medications. As a family physician without any specialized training in the rare mental illness I have, it was barely sufficient and I (and my family) suffered through a lot of problems with my health.

Now, with the mental health parity, I can get the professional care I need to manage my disability, covered in the same way that a physical illness would be.

The way Obamacare has been structured, I have been able to have several surgeries to remove large cysts that had engulfed my ovaries, as well as a surgery to relocate my stomach from having herniated up to being more than halfway into my chest cavity and put back into my abdomen. Without Obamacare, I would not have even been able to afford to go to the doctor for checkups, much less afford the tests needed to diagnose these issues, and the surgeries necessary to save my life.

I would literally not be alive right now if it wasn't for the care I have been able to get under Obamacare. I am terrified that the changes the current administration has in mind are going to make it impossible for me to continue with the current course of treatment I am receiving, which is finally starting to see some positive effect. I am terrified that my prescription drugs will no longer be covered at the level that they are now, and that my twice-weekly sessions will go back to being so strictly regulated that it was barely a way for me to be surviving, much less being able to move forward to better health. I am terrified that repealing and replacing Obamacare means I will have to choose again between taking care of my health or paying my other bills.

The current administration's proposal for healthcare reform will very likely lead to a huge decline in my health, as well as an inability to afford health insurance, which will lead to a further decline in my health. In all honesty, it is not unrealistic to believe that I will die, and that is something I and my doctors are trying to fight.

So, it is my hope that the "American Health Care Act" not be passed, and that the Affordable Care Act be left in place. I STRONGLY believe that the AHCA, or "Trumpcare", will have a negative financial and health impact on a huge percentage of Americans, and that millions will be left without affordable health insurance, and will therefore end up with life-threatening conditions and no way to pay for treatment.

I can't understand how the people who designed and support Trumpcare can be okay with the financial breaks that the upper-middle-class and wealthy will get, at the expense of the lower-middle-class, poor, disabled, and elderly. I can't understand how the supporters of Trumpcare can be okay with making these people more financially destitute, as well as putting their lives at risk. People -will- die if Trumpcare is enacted, and I cannot understand people who are so hard-hearted that they are okay with that, as long as they get more money in their own pockets.

Please save the ACA. My life matters.

~mk