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© 2017 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL–CIO
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The Burden of Living Without Insurance
Walker-Dampier was born with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the open spaces within the spine that puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. She has suffered chronic back pain for most of her life with little access to medical care.
“I used to go to the emergency room and use that as my primary care doctor,” she says. “But the bills kept racking up.”
Today, she no longer has to choose between paying for her medical care or her daughters’ education. She can afford the medications that make the pain bearable.
But Walker-Dampier is afraid of elected officials in Congress who have vowed to repeal the ACA. Earlier this year, she attended a town hall in Modesto, California, to send a message to California GOP Rep. Jeff Denham that he must help protect Obamacare. She told her story to a standing-room-only crowd and brought many to tears.
“Nobody knows how many days and nights I’ve laid in bed with so much pain that all I can do is cry and cry,” she said. “During the day nobody knew I had the pain because I always do my work with a smile on my face. A few years ago I was so tired of this pain that I thought to myself, I’m going to take my own life. It’s not because I didn’t want to live, but I just didn’t want to live in pain.”
Despite the pain she lives with, Walker-Dampier puts the needs of her clients above her own. But if her health care is taken away, she says, “I don’t want to find myself right back where I started from.”
“I’m pleading for us all as a whole,” she says, “because we’re all human beings and we all need affordable health care. We all want to live with peace of mind, and we shouldn’t have to choose between medical care and putting food on the table. Without insurance, so many of us wouldn’t know what to do.”
The burden of living without insurance
Byrd’s 52-year-old son was merely 19 when he developed a non-malignant brain tumor.
“For 31 years he had no health insurance,” says Byrd, an AFSCME retiree in Panama City, Fla. “When the Affordable Care Act came along, he was able to get affordable health care. He was able to go to the doctor. I can remember the day that he came over to the house and he goes, ‘Mom, I went to a dermatologist today.’ And that means so much to us.”
Because of her son’s preexisting condition, health insurance companies refused him coverage. Byrd and her husband lived under the constant worry that if anything happened to their son, they would have to scramble to pay for his medical care.
That shadow was lifted with passage of the ACA. The law required insurance companies to cover the sick as well as the healthy.
Byrd finds it incomprehensible that many in Congress want to gut a law that has allowed her son and millions of other Americans to gain health coverage.
“For 31 years we worried about our child,” she says. “We would have done everything had he had a catastrophic illness. We would have given up everything for our child. But to have that burden taken off of you is … indescribable!”
Byrd is in a unique position to know just how common her family’s story is. For 27 years, she was a social worker with Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs. In that role, she saw firsthand the value of government health care to improving people’s lives.
Her job put her in touch with many a struggling family with loved ones who couldn’t get insurance coverage because of their preexisting conditions.“
Ask your neighbor,” Byrd says. “Ask someone at your church or your synagogue. Everybody has a story. Everyone knows someone with a preexisting condition.”
Byrd’s 52-year-old son was 19 when he developed a non-malignant brain tumor.
“When the Affordable Care Act came along, he was able to get affordable health care. He was able to go to the doctor. And that means so much to us,” said Byrd, an AFSCME retiree in Panama City, Florida.
Because of her son’s preexisting condition, health insurance companies refused to cover him. Byrd and her husband lived under the constant worry that if anything happened to their son, they would have to go bankrupt to pay for his medical care.
That shadow was lifted when President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law in 2010.
“We would have done everything had he had a catastrophic illness,” Byrd said. “We would have given up everything for our child. But to have that burden taken off of you is … indescribable.”
Byrd finds it incomprehensible that many in Congress want to gut a law that has allowed her son and millions of other Americans to gain health coverage. Under proposals to replace the ACA, her son’s costs would skyrocket to the point that he would likely lose his coverage entirely.
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Terry Walker-Dampier
Living with Chronic Pain
Walker-Dampier was born with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the open spaces within the spine that puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. She has suffered chronic back pain for most of her life with little access to medical care.
“I used to go to the emergency room and use that as my primary care doctor,” she says. “But the bills kept racking up.”
Today, she no longer has to choose between paying for her medical care or her daughters’ education. She can afford the medications that make the pain bearable.
But Walker-Dampier is afraid of elected officials in Congress who have vowed to repeal the ACA. Earlier this year, she attended a town hall in Modesto, California, to send a message to California GOP Rep. Jeff Denham that he must help protect Obamacare. She told her story to a standing-room-only crowd and brought many to tears.
“Nobody knows how many days and nights I’ve laid in bed with so much pain that all I can do is cry and cry,” she said. “During the day nobody knew I had the pain because I always do my work with a smile on my face. A few years ago I was so tired of this pain that I thought to myself, I’m going to take my own life. It’s not because I didn’t want to live, but I just didn’t want to live in pain.”
Despite the pain she lives with, Walker-Dampier puts the needs of her clients above her own. But if her health care is taken away, she says, “I don’t want to find myself right back where I started from.”
“I’m pleading for us all as a whole,” she says, “because we’re all human beings and we all need affordable health care. We all want to live with peace of mind, and we shouldn’t have to choose between medical care and putting food on the table. Without insurance, so many of us wouldn’t know what to do.”
The burden of living without insurance
Byrd’s 52-year-old son was merely 19 when he developed a non-malignant brain tumor.
“For 31 years he had no health insurance,” says Byrd, an AFSCME retiree in Panama City, Fla. “When the Affordable Care Act came along, he was able to get affordable health care. He was able to go to the doctor. I can remember the day that he came over to the house and he goes, ‘Mom, I went to a dermatologist today.’ And that means so much to us.”
Because of her son’s preexisting condition, health insurance companies refused him coverage. Byrd and her husband lived under the constant worry that if anything happened to their son, they would have to scramble to pay for his medical care.
That shadow was lifted with passage of the ACA. The law required insurance companies to cover the sick as well as the healthy.
Byrd finds it incomprehensible that many in Congress want to gut a law that has allowed her son and millions of other Americans to gain health coverage.
“For 31 years we worried about our child,” she says. “We would have done everything had he had a catastrophic illness. We would have given up everything for our child. But to have that burden taken off of you is … indescribable!”
Byrd is in a unique position to know just how common her family’s story is. For 27 years, she was a social worker with Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs. In that role, she saw firsthand the value of government health care to improving people’s lives.
Her job put her in touch with many a struggling family with loved ones who couldn’t get insurance coverage because of their preexisting conditions.“
Ask your neighbor,” Byrd says. “Ask someone at your church or your synagogue. Everybody has a story. Everyone knows someone with a preexisting condition.”
Terry Walker-Dampier was born with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the gaps within the spine that puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. She has suffered chronic back pain for most of her life with little access to medical care.
“I used to go to the emergency room and use that as my primary care doctor,” she said. “But the bills kept racking up.”
Today, Walker-Dampier no longer has to choose between paying for her medical care or her daughters’ education. She can afford the medications that reduce the pain to manageable levels.
But if the congressional majority replaces the ACA with its own proposal, Walker-Dampier will be right back where she was before the ACA was passed.
Earlier this year, Walker-Dampier attended a town hall in Modesto, California, to send a message to GOP Rep. Jeff Denham that he must help protect the ACA. She told her story to a standing-room-only crowd and brought many to tears.
“Nobody knows how many days and nights I’ve laid in bed with so much pain that all I can do is cry and cry,” she said. “During the day nobody knew I had the pain because I always do my work with a smile on my face. A few years ago, I was so tired of this pain that I thought to myself, I’m going to take my own life. It’s not because I didn’t want to live, but I just didn’t want to live in pain.”
Take Action NOW!
The fight to protect affordable health care for working people is far from over. Opponents of the Affordable Care Act aren’t giving up and neither can we. If you support the law, sign on today.
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273%
53%
Source: Economic Policy Institute
Scroll around to learn more
How many people would lose their
health insurance if ACA were repealed?
Hawaii
The number of people without insurance would jump by 99%
86,000 people would lose their health insurance
Alaska
The number of people without insurance would jump by 53%
62,000 people would lose their health insurance
California
The number of people without insurance would jump by 146%
4,887,000 people would lose their health insurance
Oregon
The number of people without insurance would jump by 186%
475,000 people would lose their health insurance
Washington
The number of people without insurance would jump by 153%
775,000 people would lose their health insurance
Arizona
The number of people without insurance would jump by 95%
709,000 people would lose their health insurance
Utah
The number of people without insurance would jump by 83%
273,000 people would lose their health insurance
Nevada
The number of people without insurance would jump by 95%
371,000 people would lose their health insurance
Idaho
The number of people without insurance would jump by 101%
184,000 people would lose their health insurance
New Mexico
The number of people without insurance would jump by 136%
266,000 people would lose their health insurance
Colorado
The number of people without insurance would jump by 134%
588,000 people would lose their health insurance
Wyoming
The number of people without insurance would jump by 76%
47,000 people would lose their health insurance
Montana
The number of people without insurance would jump by 168%
142,000 people would lose their health insurance
Texas
The number of people without insurance would jump by 58%
2,550,000 people would lose their health insurance
Oklahoma
The number of people without insurance would jump by 59%
313,000 people would lose their health insurance
Kansas
The number of people without insurance would jump by 76%
219,000 people would lose their health insurance
Nebraska
The number of people without insurance would jump by 111%
165,000 people would lose their health insurance
South Dakota
The number of people without insurance would jump by 92%
74,000 people would lose their health insurance
North Dakota
The number of people without insurance would jump by 154%
69,000 people would lose their health insurance
Louisiana
The number of people without insurance would jump by 154%
558,000 people would lose their health insurance
Arkansas
The number of people without insurance would jump by 171%
361,000 people would lose their health insurance
Missouri
The number of people without insurance would jump by 93%
504,000 people would lose their health insurance
Iowa
The number of people without insurance would jump by 150%
230,000 people would lose their health insurance
Minnesota
The number of people without insurance would jump by 123%
380,000 people would lose their health insurance
Mississippi
The number of people without insurance would jump by 65%
229,000 people would lose their health insurance
Tennessee
The number of people without insurance would jump by 79%
526,000 people would lose their health insurance
Kentucky
The number of people without insurance would jump by 200%
486,000 people would lose their health insurance
Indiana
The number of people without insurance would jump by 103%
566,000 people would lose their health insurance
Illinois
The number of people without insurance would jump by 128%
1,150,000 people would lose their health insurance
Alabama
The number of people without insurance would jump by 74%
357,000 people would lose their health insurance
North Carolina
The number of people without insurance would jump by 90%
1,025,000 people would lose their health insurance
West Virginia
The number of people without insurance would jump by 208%
184,000 people would lose their health insurance
Ohio
The number of people without insurance would jump by 155%
964,000 people would lose their health insurance
Wisconsin
The number of people without insurance would jump by 144%
431,000 people would lose their health insurance
Florida
The number of people without insurance would jump by 90%
2,230,000 people would lose their health insurance
Georgia
The number of people without insurance would jump by 71%
1,006,000 people would lose their health insurance
South Carolina
The number of people without insurance would jump by 58%
353,000 people would lose their health insurance
Virginia
The number of people without insurance would jump by 79%
685,000 people would lose their health insurance
Pennsylvania
The number of people without insurance would jump by 134%
956,000 people would lose their health insurance
Michigan
The number of people without insurance would jump by 175%
887,000 people would lose their health insurance
Washington D.C.
The number of people without insurance would jump by 103%
32,000 people would lose their health insurance
Maryland
The number of people without insurance would jump by 123%
476,000 people would lose their health insurance
New Jersey
The number of people without insurance would jump by 124%
799,000 people would lose their health insurance
New York
The number of people without insurance would jump by 75%
1,139,000 people would lose their health insurance
Delaware
The number of people without insurance would jump by 86%
52,000 people would lose their health insurance
Connecticut
The number of people without insurance would jump by 124%
248,000 people would lose their health insurance
Rhode Island
The number of people without insurance would jump by 170%
96,000 people would lose their health insurance
Vermont
The number of people without insurance would jump by 129%
35,000 people would lose their health insurance
Massachusetts
The number of people without insurance would jump by 273%
369,000 people would lose their health insurance
New Hampshire
The number of people without insurance would jump by 190%
118,000 people would lose their health insurance
Maine
The number of people without insurance would jump by 122%
95,000 people would lose their health insurance
A
mong the many families who have benefitted from Obamacare is Patricia Byrd’s. A retired AFSCME social worker in Florida, Byrd said the law made it possible for countless people with preexisting conditions to afford health insurance for the first time in their lives. One of them is her son.
Thanks to Walker-Dampier, Byrd and tens of thousands of working people who spoke up, got involved, and held our leaders accountable, 24 million of our fellow Americans still have health care.
In late March, after weeks of constant phone calls and emails, and huge crowds at town halls telling them to protect health care, leaders in Congress abandoned their efforts to pass a bill that would have repealed the ACA, left 24 million Americans uninsured, and doled out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to millionaires and corporations.
But congressional leaders and the White House are reviving their efforts to kill off the ACA. This time, they are want to make it easier for insurers to deny coverage for preexisting conditions — a critically important feature of the ACA. So working people must remain vigilant and informed and be ready to take quick, effective action. It’s more important than ever that we lend our ears to those who can testify to how the ACA has saved lives and what we stand to lose if it is dismantled.
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27
2016
million
uninsured
29
2015
million
uninsured
33
2014
million uninsured
42
2013
million uninsured
48
2012
million uninsured
49
2011
million
uninsured
2010
million uninsured
50
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Move the mouse over the chart to see the decline in the number of uninsured people since President Obama signed the ACA into law in March 2010.
ACA Throughout the Years
27
29
33
42
48
49
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
Million
Million
Million
Million
Million
Million
Million
50
P
ublic service workers know why health care matters. On the job, we work hard to keep our communities healthy and strong. At home, we’d sacrifice anything for the well-being of our families.
When politicians talk about repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), they seem to forget that the health of millions of families and communities is at stake. Obamacare, as the law is also known, has saved countless lives.
Among the 30 million Americans who now have health insurance thanks to the ACA is Terry Walker-Dampier, a proud home care provider in California, as she likes to stress, and a member of United Domestic Workers (UDW)/AFSCME Local 3930. She used to live with chronic pain, but thanks to the ACA she can now afford the medications that make the pain bearable.
Among the many families who have benefitted from Obamacare is Patricia Byrd’s. A retired AFSCME social worker in Florida, Byrd said the law made it possible for countless people with preexisting conditions to afford health insurance for the first time in their lives. One of them is her son.
Thanks to Walker-Dampier, Byrd and tens of thousands of working people who spoke up, got involved, and held our leaders accountable, 24 million of our fellow Americans still have health care.
In late March, after weeks of constant phone calls and emails, and huge crowds at town halls telling them to protect health care, leaders in Congress abandoned their efforts to pass a bill that would have repealed the ACA, left 24 million Americans uninsured, and doled out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to millionaires and corporations.
But congressional leaders and the White House are promising to revive their efforts to kill off the ACA, and so working people must remain vigilant and informed and be ready to take quick, effective action. It’s more important than ever that we lend our ears to those who can testify to how the ACA has saved lives and what we stand to lose if it is dismantled.
Walker-Dampier was born with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the gaps within the spine that puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. She has suffered chronic back pain for most of her life with little access to medical care.
“I used to go to the emergency room and use that as my primary care doctor,” she said. “But the bills kept racking up.”
Today, Walker-Dampier no longer has to choose between paying for her medical care or her daughters’ education. She can afford the medications that reduce the pain to manageable levels.
But if the congressional majority replaces the ACA with its own proposal, Walker-Dampier will be right back where she was before the ACA was passed.
Earlier this year, Walker-Dampier attended a town hall in Modesto, California, to send a message to GOP Rep. Jeff Denham that he must help protect the ACA. She told her story to a standing-room-only crowd and brought many to tears.
“Nobody knows how many days and nights I’ve laid in bed with so much pain that all I can do is cry and cry,” she said. “During the day nobody knew I had the pain because I always do my work with a smile on my face. A few years ago, I was so tired of this pain that I thought to myself, I’m going to take my own life. It’s not because I didn’t want to live, but I just didn’t want to live in pain.”
Byrd’s 52-year-old son was 19 when he developed a non-malignant brain tumor.
“When the Affordable Care Act came along, he was able to get affordable health care. He was able to go to the doctor. And that means so much to us,” said Byrd, an AFSCME retiree in Panama City, Florida.
Because of her son’s preexisting condition, health insurance companies refused to cover him. Byrd and her husband lived under the constant worry that if anything happened to their son, they would have to go bankrupt to pay for his medical care.
That shadow was lifted when President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law in 2010.
“We would have done everything had he had a catastrophic illness,” Byrd said. “We would have given up everything for our child. But to have that burden taken off of you is … indescribable.”
Byrd finds it incomprehensible that many in Congress want to gut a law that has allowed her son and millions of other Americans to gain health coverage. Under proposals to replace the ACA, her son’s costs would skyrocket to the point that he would likely lose his coverage entirely.
Two AFSCME members reflect on how the Affordable Care Act improved their lives.
Affordable care act
Improved the lives of two Americans
This is how the
By Pablo Ros