My family has been impacted by several types of chronic illnesses and depend on some of the protections in the Affordable Health Act. Mine is a small family that has not collected welfare or food stamps or Medicare/Medicaid or even collected disability. Our health insurance comes from my husband’s job and we pay every penny for it out of his salary. We pay our own way but depend on the clauses protecting our insurance coverage from being dropped due to  pre-existing conditions, coverage for adult children until 26, and mental health parity – all are examples of protections that families like mine require to afford our care and maintain our independence without being a burden to others or needing government aid.

I’m a wife, a mother of two adult sons. I have multiple conditions, including hypothyroidism, undifferentiated connective tissue disease, degenerative disk disease plus widespread osteoarthritis, pulmonary embolisms due to  genetic mutation, Raynaud’s, IBS, fibromyalgia and on more. My husband is mostly deaf and has Type II diabetes that has damaged his heart. He also has Asperger’s Syndrome and PTSD. One son is bipolar with trigeminal neuralgia. Our other son has Asperger’s Syndrome.