On the recordMarch 26, 2012
President Truman once said, ``Healthy citizens constitute our greatest national resource.'' Two years ago last week we passed the affordable care act. We passed it to help give every American access to quality affordable health care. People such as Cece Whitney from Helena, MO, know exactly how much help this law provides. Doctors diagnosed Cece with cystic fibrosis by age 7. By high school she carried an oxygen tank. By the end of college she received a double lung transplant. Even with insurance coverage Cece and her family paid tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket. But things looked even worse when she hit an arbitrary coverage limit, and if she had lost her insurance before health reform she might not have been able to find any insurance coverage at all. Insurance companies could have turned her away simply because she was born with cystic fibrosis. But now, thanks to the affordable care act, Cece will always be covered. She will always have access to the care she needs. A year ago, on the affordable care act's first anniversary, Cece shared her story about seeing health reform signed into law with her local newspaper. She said she cried tears--tears of extreme joy. She wrote: I knew that I no longer had to worry about losing or being denied coverage because of my `preexisting condition.' And I no longer was going to be denied coverage for exceeding arbitrary caps set by insurance companies. Cece's story is not unique.…
