What would happen if I lost ObamaCare

Since the beginning of the month, I have been receiving emails from the healthcare.gov team extolling me to enroll in the Obamacare plan for the next year. With a ton of office work at hand, I took a cursory look and told myself that I’ll enroll soon, maybe over one of the upcoming weekends. The cutoff date is Dec. 15 so what’s the big hurry I thought to myself. Fifteen minutes, that’s all it takes.

Then came Nov. 9: I woke up to a changed world. Donald Trump had won the U.S. presidential election. So, when I got yet another email this morning from healthcare.gov saying “Three steps to quality health coverage,” I froze for a moment.

{mosads}The personal impact of the Trump presidency suddenly hit me. Do I even need to spend those fifteen minutes filling out the application? ObamaCare is destined to be repealed, the President-elect has promised that. So why should I waste my time?

I am going to be without any medical cover yet again. Would there be an alternate affordable choice? A quick succession of questions and concerns flashed through my mind before I regained my composure. It’s been a sinking feeling ever since, bordering on anxiety, something I can ill afford. I am a heart patient and the last thing I need is tension and stress.

We arrived in the U.S. almost 16 years back on a cold winter afternoon, a family of four including two high school age boys, fleeing threats and fear in our own country. It was a tough choice I had faced as the husband, the father, the breadwinner, the head of family.

We were not only heading to unknown shores, we were leaving behind family and friends, colleagues and well-wishers. We would have to make a fresh start from scratch and did not have a realistic idea of the odds we would face. But the survival instinct told me to leave, and so we did.

While pursuing permanent residency, I started working odd jobs. From distributing telephone directories to a cashier at an airport kiosk, an agent at a travel agency to an insurance agent, and also periods of unemployment, I endeavored to earn a respectable living while putting our sons through college. At times I even worked two jobs to make ends meet.

My wife lent a hand by doing similar small time jobs too. All this time we met our civic obligations, paid our taxes and lived our life as responsible legal residents.

Times were tough but we managed it. Our sons graduated high school, got their college degrees and went on to start gainful employment. Meanwhile my wife and I put our life savings into a small business which unluckily did not work out, so I had to opt for whatever employment was available. It took us from city to city, state to state.

During all this time we never earned enough to be able to afford the ever rising cost of health insurance premiums. Except for a two year period where my job covered the health bill, we lived without health insurance. As time passed and age caught on, the need for coverage became a predominant concern. We often discussed about it but found no way out. Our only recourse was heartfelt prayers that neither of us falls seriously ill.

The passage of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare came as the much-needed lifeline, though it took over three years after it was signed into law for people to be able to enroll. It provided us with an opportunity to get health coverage at reasonable premiums. One can make do with minor ailments with over-the-counter drugs but our main concern was serious illnesses that could need hospitalization or surgery and ObamaCare took care of that. Though deductibles were high, the premiums were affordable.

In 2010, my wife needed to go to the emergency room only for a couple of hours. We defaulted on the bills and she suffered adverse effects on her credit report. This was after ACA had been approved but before it came into effect. We wasted no time when enrolment started, we signed up on the first opportunity.

ObamaCare came to my rescue when I woke up with severe chest pain one night last year. I was rushed to the hospital where I was diagnosed with a heart attack, went under the knife and came out of the operation room with two stents. That night there was never a hesitation to go to the emergency room, I would have thought it over twice had I been without health insurance. I could not come up with anything close to the exorbitant hospital bills for such an eventuality. Thanks to ObamaCare, I got a second life.

Fast forward to now and I am back to square one. Same worries, same concerns. When I wake up on January 21, 2017 what lies in store for me? Will the President elect reconsider his plans to take away the umbrella that ObamaCare put over our heads and millions of people who for once felt safe and secure as to their healthcare? Or will he wield his pen and sign an executive order abolishing what amounts to a lifeline for me, my wife and tens of millions of working Americans who cannot afford the steep prices of private health insurance.

Zahid Mahmood works for a real estate firm in northern Virginia and on a part-time basis for a not-for-profit medical relief organization with an international footprint.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.