Rep. Elissa Slotkin has plan to improve Affordable Care Act

Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is playing a big part in that bill just mentioned that would improve the Affordable Care Act.
    
Right now the Donald Trump administration wants it struck down. Millions of Americans are enrolled in it, but are complain about the high cost. Slotkin ran with the platform of affordable health care for all and to include those with pre-exisiting conditions. 

She is introducing the Health Care Affordability Act and she explains how it is different from the existing ACA.

"There are alot of people with programs for the ACA but they have really high premiums and really high deductibles," she said. "It helps do two things - one, make it more affordable and two, it helps protect people with pre-exisiting conditions. It says you will never spend more than 8.5 percent of your income on health care. 

"On pre-existing conditions, it tries to close some of these loopholes that the Trump administration has tried to go through, to sell people junk plans that avoid protecting people with pre-existing conditions."

It is a personal issue for Slotkin, who says her late mother struggled with health care and battled breast cancer at a young age but survived. Thirty years later she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Slotkin's mother passed away in 2011.

"Unfortunately she had gone five and a half years without health insurance before that," Slotkin said. "She lost her job in 2002 and because of her pre-exisiiting condition she could not afford the programs that were being offered to her. We finally helped her get a program and it was $1,000 a month with a $10,000 deductible. 

"In 2009 without us knowing she let it lapse and she walked into an ER and was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. Lots of people know what its like to have a loved one get a terminal diagnosis. Your life as you know it, explodes. That same week we were filling out papers for her to declare bankruptcy."

With a plan like Slotkin's a situation like her mother's could have been avoided with the help of preventative care.

Slotkin also talks about the prescription drug costs, adding that her own father gets heart medication from Canada. To hear more of her thoughts on the issue, watch the video above.