Thread by @ASlavitt

Today is the 9th anniversary of the passage of the #ACA.

Every day from the day I showed up in the Obama Administration I would read people’s emails and letters about how their lives had changed. 1/

I remember listening to a call center rep walking a woman in Virginia through how much insurance would cost her family.

She was 60, worked two jobs, & had 3 dependents. She was shocked when she heard she could afford insurance for the first time in her life. 2/

When the phone call was almost done she sheepishly asked if it was possible to get dental insurance. It was only a few more $ per month, but the woman didn’t have it. She bought it for her grown son only as a birthday present. 3/

President Obama would get letters all time of families who were in the midst of a cancer diagnosis when the ACA passed and had been giving up hope. Their lives were saved. 4/

Often notes or emails would be about what it felt like to show up to the doctors office and be able to pull out an insurance card, start a business despite having a child with an illness, or letting a kid play a sport without fear of an injury. 5/

After getting insurance for their kids the first time, people were often overwhelmed with joy. Two lines I remember.

“Tonight I went to bed knowing what the expression sleep like a baby means.”

“Today I felt like the best parent in the world.” 6/

Ordinary stuff.

Times 20 million.

Half the ACA job was making it work for as many people as possible. 7/

This was the other half.

Facing endless attacks from people who wanted the ACA to fail. Defunded the pool of money set aside to lower rates, convinced insurers to leave the market, taking every opportunity to brand Obamacare as a disaster. 8/

When members of Congress would tell me about the ACA’s challenges, some were of their own making.

Others I would tell them there was an easy fix and they would tell me “I can’t be seen to be helping the ACA.” 9/

After Trump became president, I ran into Lindsay Graham at a CNN studio. Republicans were having trouble repealing the ACA.

“I think the best strategy is to just let it fail of its own weight and blame Obama.”

10/

This has been a 9 year strategy against the ACA.

Every other major piece of legislation has relied on follow up legislation to fix glitches— including the Republican tax bill. The defeated party puts the country ahead of their loss.

Such had never happened with the ACA. 10/

Many people made the #ACA happen. I didn’t get there until 5 years ago. Some like Ted Kennedy worked for 4 decades. And I regret he never got to read the letters I did.

On the #ACAanniversary, may the law just fade into the background under people who want to see it work. /end