My Pre-Existing Condition: Asthma

As a young child, I vividly remember playing, running around and then suddenly having trouble breathing. It would come on unexpectedly, but once it did — I’d be gasping for air. I learned pretty quickly that I needed to stop playing, get some medicine and then go lay down to try and calm my breathing. Sometimes it would go away quickly — other times it would be hours of wheezing and coughing. I was born with asthma. It’s my pre-existing condition. From a young age — it threatened to take away an essential part of my life — my ability to breathe.

I really don’t remember a time in my life that I didn’t have some sort of trouble with asthma, but like many people with a pre-existing condition — having access to the right care has allowed me to overcome this health problem. I was fortunate. My parents both worked for a popular grocery store chain in the Chicago suburbs and their union jobs afforded good health insurance coverage. I was able to start a regime of allergy shots and maintenance medications that would help me control my asthma. While I didn’t look forward to the two shots a week and the daily pills and inhalers — I didn’t at all like the coughing, wheezing, trouble breathing and sitting out of play time with my younger brothers and friends.

At the time, I was too young to consider the alternative — what if my parents didn’t have good health insurance coverage and couldn’t afford all of these treatments. Unfortunately, I found out. After my parents divorced, my family’s financial situation changed for the worse and during high school (even though I worked an average of 30 hours a week, attended classes and helped pay household bills) — I would start having to skip doctor’s visits and my medications because our health insurance coverage wasn’t as good and we didn’t have the money to make up the difference. After years of my asthma getting better, I was regressing. I remember being at a friend’s house, playing on a trampoline and having the first major asthma attack that I’ve had in years. I could barely breathe and didn’t have any medication — because we couldn’t afford it. Thankfully, one of my friends also had asthma and let me use their inhaler to stop the attack.

This would start a cycle in my life that when I had access to care — my asthma would be well-controlled and non-existent. When I didn’t have health insurance and the means to pay for care — like when I was 26 and a contractor for a Fortune 100 company with a job that didn’t include any benefits — I would have to skip doctor’s visits, ration my medications and watch my asthma get worse. At the age of 29, I finally landed a job with higher wages and solid benefits, which allowed me to get consistent care and finally get my asthma under control for good. Three years later, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed and began providing means for people like me to not have to suffer without health insurance, struggle with the ability to afford care and be forced to make a decisions that dramatically affect their quality of life.

As a child — I could barely run around the house without having difficulty breathing. With consistent health insurance coverage, access to care and ability to afford my maintenance medications — I am now able to live almost asthma free and can run for miles. In fact, I was able to complete the 2010 Chicago Marathon in 3 hours and 53 minutes. This is what healthcare and modern medicine is all about — helping people overcome their medical conditions and experience a higher quality of life.

There are many stories like mine and no one should suffer because they are not fortunate enough to have the means to afford care. The ACA began to address these situations and provide a path for all Americans to get the health insurance they needed and could receive proper care. Now, Paul Ryan and Republicans in the House and Senate are looking to go back to a time before the ACA and make it harder for those with less means to get the care and prescription drugs they need. In a compassionate America, we are focused on keeping our society healthy and productive by enhancing access to affordable high-quality health care and ensuring that all of us are covered by health insurance. We don’t actively try to take health insurance and access to care away from anyone.

We need to continue to tell our representatives that we do not support Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump’s healthcare plan. We need our leaders to work harder to innovate and design a health insurance system that protects the health of all Americans and ensures that no one in America goes without care. I can’t imagine what my life would be like today if I wasn’t able to control my asthma. I don’t want anyone across our great nation to suffer because we didn’t work hard enough to come up with a solution to provide quality, affordable and life-saving healthcare for all of us — not just some of us. I know what it’s like to not be able to afford health insurance and care — no one in the future should.

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