News release
To Mark First Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Moms Share Personal Health Care Stories
March 22, 2011
Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996
Thousands of MomsRising Members Are Sharing Stories About the Importance of the Affordable Care Act to Them and Their Families
Last fall, MomsRising member Dawn Josephson wrote to the advocacy group about how the Affordable Care Act would guarantee that her health insurance could not exclude her son’s pre-existing condition – something she had struggled with for several years, through several insurance companies. Her story was so touching that she was invited to a “backyard meeting” with President Obama in September to share her experience.
In the last year, since the signing of the Affordable Care Act, MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground grassroots organization for moms and everyone who has a mom, has heard from its more than one million members about how important health care reform is to keeping themselves and their families healthy. Moms, dads, aunts, uncles and grandparents across the country have shared their stories – from the heartbreaking, to the inspirational, to the joyous – about how health care reform is helping their families.
To mark the first anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), MomsRising is sharing those stories online and with Members of Congress, the heads of federal agencies and the public.
A blog-a-thon in conjunction with the National Women’s Law Center will include blogs from moms, dads and others all over the country about the ways in which their families are already benefiting from the ACA and the ways in which they stand to benefit. It will begin at MomsRising on March 23 and continue through March 25.
MomsRising members are also sharing their stories in other venues, including on a teleconference on women and small business hosted by the National Women’s Law Center, the National Partnership for Women & Families, MomsRising and other organizations on March 24.
MomsRising will also be promoting a video with Julie Walters, a mom who says the ACA may well save the life of her two-year-old daughter Violet who has a particularly deadly form of epilepsy, on a new web site, www.protectyourcare.com. If not for the ACA, Violet’s insurance would run out in two years, due to lifetime caps, and her pre-existing condition would prevent her from being insurance by another carrier. Julie will talk about her experience and encourage others to discuss how health reform is helping – or will help – their families access the health care services they need. The video will be posted on March 23, the anniversary of the signing of the ACA.
This week, MomsRising is delivering to Members of Congress a book of stories, including Walters’, that illustrate how health reform is making a difference in the lives of families. The book, Keep America Moving Forward on Health Care, includes stories from every state in the union.
“We’ve heard the overwhelming voice of moms across the country on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act and we want to be sure that our Members of Congress hear it too,” said MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “As we celebrate the first anniversary of this life-changing and life-saving law, we also want to be sure that families across the country understand how this law can benefit them. We know that thousands of people have taken this opportunity to ensure that they and their children have health care coverage, but we also know that hundreds of thousands more who could benefit, don’t know that.”
In addition to Julie Walters’story, the book includes stories from:
- Kim in Montana, who has been battling bone marrow cancer for five years and has had two stem cell transplants. Kim says that with health reform in place and the lifetime caps removed, she will be able to continue to fight;
- Lisa in Minnesota, whose young adult daughter was diagnosed with Dysautonomia and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia and began to black out, ultimately requiring a unique and very new kind of pacemaker. Lisa says that under the new health care law, her employer was able to cover Julie’s care under their health care plan;
- Nan, a small business owner in Illinois, who reports that she will get approximately $12,000 in tax credits for providing complete health insurance for her employees; and many others.
Click here to learn more, or to see a story from a MomsRising member near you.