Father saved by the Affordable Care Act

Around my father’s 39th birthday, he discovered a swelling on the top of his foot. At Georgetown Hospital, they discovered it was skin cancer: melanoma. Melanoma is the most dangerous kind of skin cancer as it easily spreads to other parts of the body when not diagnosed early. My dad probably would have died if it weren’t for the Affordable Care Act.

After he was cured and all of our bills were paid, we moved to the southern mountains of India. We lived there for two years until my dad started finding weird bites during summer. For the first few months he just passed it off as mosquitoes, but he took a 12-hour drive to another hospital, where he was diagnosed with a relapse of the same melanoma he had before. We barely had enough money to get back to the states.

When we got back, we lived in my grandparents’ house until he was cured and we moved to Kentucky. If you honestly want to repeal legislation that would protect low-income people like my family, you are killing someone’s dad.

Please. For me and my family and everyone like us in the seven years that follow, protect the health care of as many middle- and low-income people as possible.

This story was originally published September 14, 2017 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Father saved by the Affordable Care Act."