The Save My Care bus joined The Raging Grannies, local government officials, and health care advocates in Binghamton, New York on Friday, January 20th.
In Binghamton, we met Maria, a young woman from the area who has health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Read her story and then call your senator to say you support affordable health care.
“When I graduated college, I developed the first signs of major depression. Before I knew it, it took over my life. I tried ignoring it, I tried waiting for it to go away on its own, but of course that doesn’t happen. I needed treatment and slowly I accepted that fact.
Having health care through the Affordable Care Act made an important difference for me. It gave me a place where I can turn for help. It’s such a challenging first step for many with this condition to reach out at all. It’s hard to put a price tag on that value. Having health care when I needed it, having a trusted doctor in my life that I’ve been seeing since I was a teenager and can be open with—the value of that private, safe space, where I can confide in my doctor without the guilt that kept me silent so much of the time. As of now, I’m 26 years old and the ACA has not stopped helping me. The expansion of Medicaid has come to my aid and I’m now depending on this provision to allow me to stay on the treatments that keep me reasonably functional.
Repealing the Affordable Care Act means taking away my health insurance, which is one of the few things ensuring my stability. With so much at stake, the threat feels so immediate—like a present danger to oneself. So I ask everyone—please protect our health care like our lives depend on it—because truly they do. Don’t let our worries become a reality. The suggestion that we repeal the Affordable Care Act and take away medical care from 20 million people is quite simply morally unacceptable and we can’t let that happen. It’s a matter of utmost urgency for us. So please, save our health care. Do not destroy it, but protect it and expand it. Ensure us all the secure future that we hope for because that’s our right as living humans.”
