The ACA Is Here to Stay--So Let's Improve It (by Laura Hatcher)
The Hatcher Family [image description: A mom and dad along with their two children, son and daughter, pose outside the U.S. Capitol building on a strip of green grass. The family is white. They are wearing outfits that feature the colors navy blue and white. The father and son wear glasses. The mother and daughter have long blond hair. They are accompanied by a large dog with white curly fur.]
In 2017, people with disabilities, including kids, showed up to defend the Affordable Care Act, the law that protects everyone’s access to healthcare. Defending that law, which gave our kids with complex medical needs and disabilities the right to access the health care they need to survive and thrive in their homes and communities, was the catalyst that brought the families of Little Lobbyists together. Five years later it finally feels safe to say that we succeeded.
Fun fact: the Little Lobbyists logo was designed late at night while we were waiting for the Senate vote that saved the ACA in the first year of the Trump Administration.
I’m Simon’s mom, the designer of the Little Lobbyists logo and our Communications Director. Along with my husband, Brian (a.k.a. Simon’s dad), I run a small design firm outside of Baltimore, where we’re raising our two amazing kids. Our daughter Olivia is a freshman at Johns Hopkins, double-majoring in pre-med and public health (the family’s other business). Simon is almost 16, and he loves to play Mario Kart, practice the drums, and has the best laugh you’ve ever heard. Simon also has hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, vision and hearing loss, a unique genetic disorder, and physical and cognitive disabilities.
You could say he has a few “pre-existing conditions.”
In fact, everyone in my family has pre-existing conditions - from my husband’s high blood pressure to my asthma. Olivia doesn’t even have a spleen! But that's a story for another time.
My family needs health care, and we need the protections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to ensure we can access that health care. Simon recently became eligible for a Medicaid waiver thanks to the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. Having Home and Community-Based Services through Medicaid has been life-changing for him.
Because Brian and I are small business owners, the only way the two of us and Olivia can access health insurance is through the ACA’s exchanges. Every year, during the open enrollment period, we choose the plan that works best for our family. Thanks to the ACA’s guaranteed coverage of essential benefits, the plans are all good quality.
But I can’t say they’ve always been affordable.
As middle-class business owners, my family has never qualified for any subsidies. Every month I put our insurance payment of over $700 on our credit card. Most months, I can pay it off. But sometimes – especially during the height of the pandemic when business came to a standstill – I couldn’t. Those months, we’d accrue debt with interest, and I’d accrue a bit more anxiety.
When Congress passed the American Rescue Plan (ARP) in April of 2021, I was absolutely thrilled that it did so much to improve our country’s access to health care.
Laura Hatcher [image description: A black & white photo of a white woman with sunglasses posing in a park with the U.S. Capitol building behind her. She wears a long-sleeved dark-colored t-shirt with the words “Health Care Voter.”]
The ARP increased vital funding for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services, created targeted subsidies to help people in Medicaid non-expansion states access health coverage for the first time, and opened a special enrollment period to help more families get health care during the pandemic. It also expanded subsidies for families, like mine, who had never before qualified for any support.
My health insurance now costs $600 less a month. That’s $7,200 I didn’t have to put on my credit card this year. That is affordable insurance. That is access to the health care my family needs. That is peace of mind.
In fact, the ACA improvements under the ARP have worked so well that a record number of people signed up for health coverage in 2021. Millions more families can now see a doctor when they are sick. They can get preventative screenings to stay healthy. Access to health care means lives improved, lives saved.
Unfortunately, right now, this increased access to health care and peace of mind is only temporary. The enhanced ACA subsidies, Medicaid funding, and extended enrollment are due to expire at the end of 2022. Millions of people may also lose their health care when the State of Emergency ends and states are once again allowed to purge Medicaid rolls.
We simply cannot let that happen.
Maintaining the health care protections and coverage provided by the Affordable Care Act against 5 years of constant, intense, political assault was a Herculean feat, but it isn’t enough.
The expanded access and affordability temporarily created by the American Rescue Plan isn’t enough, either.
After five years of fear and instability created by Republican-led threats to our basic right to access to health care, and after two years of a deadly global pandemic that disproportionately impacted marginalized communities (including people of color and those with disabilities), it’s abundantly clear that our nation’s ability to survive, and hopefully thrive, is not possible without EVERYONE having access to health care.
It is also clear that protecting and improving our access to health care is possible when we prioritize it, as we did just one year ago.
A better, healthier future is within our reach – but we must once again show up to make that happen. Tell your legislators they must not allow us to go backward. Vote for candidates who will move our country forward.
The ACA was a start. Now it is time to finish the work. Health care is a human right.