Pandemic, Job Losses and Supreme Court Case Focus Attention on Affordable Care Act Deadline

By Tammy Worth | Dec. 8, 2020

The day after her first chemotherapy treatment in 2017, Laura Packard watched Congress vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Packard, diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma, was a small business owner with a health policy purchased through Colorado’s marketplace.

“It was terrifying,” she said. “I was on the couch trying to figure out what on my body was breaking… and they were in the Rose Garden, yucking it up, so glad to be taking away health care from millions of Americans like me.”

Prior to the passage of the ACA, Packard had individual health plans she calls “junk” insurance that wouldn’t have paid for the hundreds of thousands of dollars it took to save her life. The ACA policy enabled her to undergo two hospital visits, six months of chemotherapy, a month of radiation and treatment complications. Her cancer is now in remission.

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