Affordable Care Act is essential for millions of Americans

Access to health care will be a huge issue in 2020. 

Opinion echo published in a letter to the editor in the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper:

Dear Editor:  Over 8.5 million people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance program as of 12/19/18 with the number likely to climb to over 9 million after final numbers from California and New York are included. 

(Briefly: ACA, A6, 12/20/18) "The people" continue to support access to health care. They have had their voices heard on November 6, 2018 when Democrats took the House of Representatives. More needs to be done to allow everyone in this great country of ours to have some form of health care coverage.

Despite a recent federal judge's ruling in Texas, the ACA continues to help Americans get access to health care. It looks as if the Supreme Court will once again need to weigh in as to whether or not the ACA is constitutional. It has already ruled once that it is.

The attempts by this Donald Trump White House and the Republican Party to decimate the law have so far been unsuccessful. However, without some form of legislative action, the ACA will continue to fall short of covering every American. It is possible but unlikely that the new Democratically lead House, the divided Senate and this President will do anything to increase access to health care.

Access to health care will be a huge issue in 2020. 

Listen to what candidates for President, for the House and for the Senate say about health care in the next two years as our ability to get medical care will hinge on what happens to the ACA. In the interim, make your voices heard if the law is threatened again. In the summer of 2017, calls to Congress and specifically to Senators did prevent legislation that would have gutted the ACA. 

Stay tuned and stay alert as the future of our health care system is at stake.

From Gregory Jarrin, Winslow Arizona