Tammy Baldwin: “folks in this Chamber may know this, but the fight for affordable healthcare is deeply personal to me. When I was just 9…”

“folks in this Chamber may know this, but the fight for affordable healthcare is deeply personal to me. When I was just 9 years old, I had a very serious childhood illness. It was a diagnosis similar to spinal meningitis--that wasn't the exact diagnosis--but I was actually in the hospital for 3 months. And even though I made a full recovery, my family was not able to find health insurance for me at any price, and that is because I had been labeled as a child with a preexisting health condition. At that time, insurance companies were allowed to refuse coverage for people because they had preexisting health conditions, but because of the Affordable Care Act, we changed that and gave Americans with preexisting conditions some serious protections. We gave families like mine hope. We gave young people hope allowing them to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26--a provision I crafted in the House of Representatives. And we gave small business owners hope, ensuring that their employees could get affordable care. And since then, I am proud to say that we have actually built on the success of the Affordable Care Act. One of those wins has been giving families a tax break when they buy their insurance through the marketplace to help make their healthcare more affordable.”