Arizonans’ stories and the Affordable Care Act

Arizona has been dangerously hot lately.  Speaking of hot air dangerously out of control, the Affordable Care Act is in the middle of a firestorm.

These Arizonans all depend on the Affordable Care Act in some way:

Phoenix residents Bryan and Jenny Masche were blessed with sextuplets.  They’ll need to be able to rely on Medicaid.  

Jeff Jeans, a small businessman in Sedona, was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on his vocal cords, and now says the ACA saved his life. 

The El Rio Community Health Center in Tucson serves Medicare patients with diabetes like Maria, and many Medicaid patients.  Deep cuts in the Affordable Care Act could greatly reduce the capabilities of Federally Qualified Health Centers like El Rio.

In Wickenburg, Dirk Almstedt and several members of his family struggle with chronic Lyme disease.  Their burdensome care has made him cut way back on his work hours, so they need to be sure Medicaid will be there to cover them. 

Advice:  Ask your Arizonan friends to call Sen. John McCain at (202) 224-2235 and Sen. Jeff Flake at 202-224-4521 to protect the ACA.

Martin Luther King on health care injustice: Jeff Jeans, just like you

Jeff Jeans, now a small businessman from Arizona, had volunteered in two Republican presidential campaigns and strongly opposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  A few years ago, his employer had filed for bankruptcy, ending Jeff’s health insurance coverage, just before Jeff was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on his vocal cords in 2012.  If it were left untreated, he was told, he’d have about six weeks to live.  His wife bought an insurance policy through the ACA, and that day, his cancer treatments began.  Jeff has since created a Facebook group, ObamaCareSavedMyLife

“Just like you, I was a Republican,” he told Speaker Paul Ryan at a town hall meeting last Thursday, adding that only because of the ACA “I am standing here today alive.” 

As the Rev. Martin Luther King said in March 1966, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” In his “I Have a Dream” speech, he mentioned the Founding Fathers’ promissory note guaranteeing to all of us the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  As he said then, “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”

Ken’s Advice:  Show this to your friends in Wisconsin and ask them to call Congressman Paul Ryan, House Speaker, at 202-225-3031 to urge that he preserve the ACA’s guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Read another ACA pre-existing condition story.  Thanks to Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post for the source article on January 14.