![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/r9f.352.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Preexisting-condition.png?resize=584%2C268\" "\\"Source:")
I was in Kaiser\u2019s waiting room, scrolling through my phone while listening for my name to be called. Out jumped the news that the Trump Administration was going after the Affordable Care Act again: The Justice Department declared<\/a> that protecting people with pre-existing conditions from discrimination was unconstitutional.<\/p>\nI am one of the 52 million Americans at risk of losing my health coverage due to this latest assault; I\u2019ve had cancer. I\u2019m fine now, but my trip to Kaiser was for the CT scan I get every year to make sure I stay that way. I will need such follow-up care for the foreseeable future. It\u2019s a similar story for anyone with heart disease, diabetes, depression, and a million other ailments, both major and minor. Before the ACA, my friend\u2019s premature twins could never have gotten health insurance on their own as adults because of their early months in the neonatal intensive care unit. Another friend\u2019s 20-something son was denied health insurance because he had been treated for mild acne as a teenager! Sooner or later, everybody ends up with a pre-existing condition. It\u2019s called life.<\/p>\n
Life is what I\u2019ve continued to enjoy thanks to my excellent doctors and post-cancer scans. Normally I\u2019m not anxious as I glide through the CT machine. I feel relieved and grateful to make sure I\u2019m still cancer-free, or if not, to catch and treat it early. As I lie on my back, a soothing voice instructs me when to hold my breath, when to breathe. Normally my intake and release are as relaxed as they are at the end of a yoga class. But not today. After the news, I am hyperventilating. I don\u2019t fear cancer nearly as much as I fear the determination of this President and his Republican enablers to take away my health care.<\/p>\n
Since their several dozen failed attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in Congress and the White House have waged a relentless sabotage campaign<\/a>. In a cruel and cynical ploy, Republican legislators repealed the mandate–the least popular aspect of the ACA–in last year\u2019s hastily passed tax bill. The mandate\u2019s undoing is now the rationale for eliminating the highly popular provision that prohibits excluding or jacking up the rates of people with pre-existing conditions.<\/p>\n The DOJ\u2019s move will take a while to reverberate through the courts, but the uncertainty it creates will drive up premiums even more, furthering Trump\u2019s goal of imploding the law he hates largely because it\u2019s his predecessor\u2019s signature domestic achievement.<\/p>\n Will this risky gambit work for the Republicans? Maybe not<\/a>. It turns out people like having access to treatment if it\u2019s not called \u201cObamacare.\u201d Protecting healthcare has been the #1 issue on voters\u2019 minds across the country, and this has translated into Democratic victories.<\/p>\n So rather than hyperventilating, I\u2019m going to work hard to elect people who want to make America well again. I\u2019m voting as if my life depends on it. Because it does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was in Kaiser\u2019s waiting room, scrolling through my phone while listening for my name to be called. Out jumped the news that the Trump Administration was going after the Affordable Care Act again: The Justice Department declared that protecting … Continue reading