Why we love the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act will be wonderful for my family. We currently pay $36,000 (that's right, thirty-six thousand dollars) a year for health insurance for a family of three. And it's mediocre insurance, with a $5,000 deductible and a $25,000 maximum out-of-pocket. That's what happens when you're self-employed (or your employer doesn't provide health insurance or you retire before age 65) and your family has a poor medical history.

The year my wife Alta had ovarian cancer, we paid $72,000 in health care expenses. That's the sum of our insurance premiums and the medical expenses that our insurance didn't pay for. We felt lucky and grateful to have insurance. Without it, we would have owed more than $250,000.

The insurance plan we have will go out of business the end of this year. If the Republicans manage to get the Affordable Care Act postponed, we will be unable to get any health insurance at all. And Alta has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I'll post an update after I have found out how much we will save by getting insurance through the ACA.

EDIT: The breast cancer was diagnosed at a much earlier stage than the ovarian cancer. Alta's prognosis is excellent.