When we talk about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), we focus on the politics. Discussions of the law almost always lead to heated partisan debates, and health care has been a major issue for presidential hopefuls. Nevertheless, what we should question is how changing this law would affect millions of children.
Yet another court case attempting to demolish the ACA began oral arguments in early July. The case could potentially move to the Supreme Court in the thick of the 2020 presidential election. While you can bet that partisan politics will be at the forefront of the discussion, the implications of this direct attack on the ACA cannot be ignored.
Depending on the outcome of Texas v. US in either the judicial system, we could see a complete eradication of the ACA. Should that happen, 20 million Americans, many of them children, would lose access to quality, affordable health care.
Since its passage in March 2010, almost 3 million children have gained coverage and millions more have benefitted from the groundbreaking transformations the ACA made to our health care system.
While researching the impact of the ACA, I have learned about its life-saving effect on America’s children. Children born with pre-existing conditions, such as asthma, juvenile diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and many other diseases are no longer denied coverage. Lifetime and annual dollar limits on care were eradicated, meaning that children with health conditions that require extensive care will not exhaust their coverage amounts in their early years. Losing the ACA would be disastrous for these and other children.
It is important to remember what losing the ACA would actually mean for tens of millions of Americans, especially children. Before the ACA, a child born in the NICU could exhaust his or her entire health care coverage in those first few months of life because of the misfortune of being born with birth defects. A child with asthma may not have had access to medicine that helps him or her breath because it is too expensive, and insurance would not cover it. Too many times, parents were faced with an impossible decision: foregoing life-saving medical care or going bankrupt trying to do what is best for the health and well-being of their children. These scenarios were harsh realities for millions of families and their children before the ACA, and they could be the realities of our future, should it be rescinded.
If we believe that children are the future, we must prioritize upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to protect the health and well-being of America’s children.