Share Your Affordable Care Act Story

The Affordable Care Act enabled me to start my own business, because it provided me individual, affordable access to health care. There have been challenges with the system -- online glitches, confusing rules, and rising prices -- but these issues could be tweaked.

Congressional Republicans are threatening to repeal the law immediately, without any alternative in place. This action would leave millions of Americans without health insurance.

A report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that more than 11.5 million people nationwide were signed up for Health Insurance Marketplace coverage as of December 24, 2016, an increase of 286,000 plan selections relative to the comparable period last year.

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), launched a new online tool(link is external) on January 10, 2017, for Virginians to share how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has helped them, as well as ways they would like to see the law improved.

Kaine, speaking on the Senate floor Monday night as part of a push to stop Republicans’ efforts to repeal the ACA without any replacement, read a letter he received from the Harris family of Crozet, Virginia. In the letter, Sarah Harris describes(link is external) how the ACA made it possible for her husband to pursue his dream of starting a small business without fear of losing health care coverage for their son who suffers from severe food allergies.

“The more stories I can share about how Virginians would be hurt by a repeal, the better case I can make to my Republican colleagues for why we ought to be working together to fix our health care system, rather than rushing to break it by repealing the ACA with no plan for a replacement,” Kaine said. “I am asking Virginians to help me save health care by sharing how the Affordable Care Act has helped you or a loved one, as well as ways we can make the law work better for all Americans."

SHARE YOUR AFFORDABLE CARE ACT STORY(link is external)

Kaine has been a strong advocate in the Senate for protecting the ACA from repeal. Last week, he introduced the lead amendment(link is external) to stop Republican efforts to dismantle the law, as well as led a group of moderate Senate Democrats on a letter asking Republican Senate leadership(link is external) to abandon their rush to repeal and instead pursue bipartisan talks to make meaningful improvements to the existing law.