My family is one of those that will be hurt if Sen. Susan Collins doesn’t help preserve the Affordable Care Act (“Commentary: Maine Sen. Susan Collins should vote for the Affordable Care Act,” Jan. 13).

After I worked for the same environmental nonprofit for almost five years, my company was forced to let me go because of financial constraints. This was hard news for our young family – I have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, both of whom were on my health insurance through my employer.

My son was born two months premature, so we know firsthand how important good insurance is, and we were lucky to have good coverage for the six-figure hospital bills. He was born during a fast-moving and unexpected preterm labor and spent five weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit and continuing care nursery at Maine Medical Center.

We had expensive follow-up appointments, and he was readmitted for pneumonia and bronchiolitis. Without good insurance, that emergency room bill could have made us hesitate to bring our 2-month-old to the hospital for critical care.

Now, with me out of work, my family has enrolled in insurance through the Maine ACA marketplace with my husband. Without the marketplace and our subsidy, we wouldn’t be able to afford to keep us insured while I am quickly trying to find a new job. That thought is terrifying to me – I don’t want to have to choose between my children’s safety and extremely high health care costs. Sen. Collins needs to stand to protect Mainers like us and defend the ACA.

Emily Connelly

Portland


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