I vividly remember my mom saying over the phone 'thanks President Obama' while we talked about how relieved we were that I had health insurance again. I was standing at the bus stop on my college campus, feeling a weight lifted off my shoulders now that I had health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act's protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
It was using that insulin longer than prescribed, risking infection, because I couldn't afford to waste a drop of it. It was not going to the doctor as often as needed because I feared medical bills piling up. In this return to the past, there would be huge increases in medical debt held by Americans, which is already $220 billion. Even worse, discriminating against people with chronic illness would lead to poorer outcomes, including preventable complications and death.