Letter to the editor - Support the Affordable Care Act

Editor,

Before Montana’s Medicaid, my dad lived without health insurance.

I grew up watching him be unable to take or even get his medications because we couldn’t afford them.

Sometimes he would write letters to the prescription companies, and usually, they responded with a “sorry, we can’t help you.” Sometimes they sent him a sample or two.

Montana’s Medicaid, which expanded under the ACA, allowed him to get health insurance for the first time. Without CHIP, I would have grown up without health insurance, too. I’m thankful that I had Healthy Montana Kids by my side, and thankful that Montana expanded Medicaid, so my dad doesn’t have to resort to taking prescription samples anymore.

The ACA is critically important for people like me, my dad, and every other Montanan — adult OR child — who is insured because of Montana’s Medicaid and CHIP. We cannot go back and must protect the ACA.

Hannah Pate

Havre