VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. —
A Virginia advocacy organization is calling on a United States Representative to defend the Affordable Care Act, which transformed healthcare across the country.
On Tuesday afternoon in Virginia Beach, Affordable Virginia asked Rep. Jen Kiggans to defend the Affordable Care Act. The act was passed 14 years ago and allowed those with pre-existing conditions to be covered. It also cut costs for the nearly 50 million Americans living without health insurance at the time.
During a Tuesday press conference at the Sandler Center, speakers included healthcare professionals, advocates and personal stories of those who benefited from the act. One of those people included northern Virginia resident Laura Packard, who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2017.
"If they had stripped away my insurance while I was going through treatments today, I would be bankrupt or dead because it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to save my life," Packard said when speaking to the crowd.
Currently, more than half a million Virginians are enrolled in the ACA. Affordable Virginia is worried the act may go away as the House Republican Study Committee's recent budget proposal takes aim at the law.
The group delivered petition forms to the representative's Virginia Beach office with signatures from hundreds of District-2 constituents and healthcare professionals. One of them, Linda Bennington, is a retired nurse who spoke about the changes the ACA had on her job.
"The best thing about the Affordable Care Act was how it influenced Medicaid and that it allows us (medical practitioners) to treat pre-existing conditions."
Bennington said the ability to treat illnesses before they get bad is key to a healthier country.
Kiggans has not recently commented on the ACA but has said in previous interviews she wouldn’t support a cut to Medicare. We reached out to Congresswoman Kiggans’ team for comment but have not heard back yet as of Tuesday evening.