Dear Mr. President

Note: I wrote a letter to the President since he’s taking messages on Facebook now. I’m not the most eloquent guy and forget details and dates all the time but I did my best.

Dear Mr. President,

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you’ve done for my family.

My daughter Elliot was born just past six years ago with a rare condition called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita which left her with very limited movement and lacked the ability to walk. I was transitioning jobs at the time. When she was born, I was under Cobra at my old job. When we were ready to start addressing her issues through surgery, I was on a new insurance plan that denied coverage due to the Arthrogryposis being a preexisting condition. This was Sep. of 2010.

Not a week later did we get ANOTHER letter from the insurance company taking it back as the new rules about preexisting conditions got put into place. A few major surgeries later and years of hard work by her, her amazing mother, and her medical team she was able to taker her first steps. We found her an amazing school for her needs where she’s been recognized for her hard work and character and she will be going into the first grade this year.

We’ve been so happy with her medical team that we decided to adopt a child with similar orthopedic special needs since we’re able to afford medical coverage and have such a strong team in place. Her name is Fiona and she is a ball of lightning.

I love my family more than anything and it’s occurred to me in the last few days that none of this would have been possible without the affordable care act.

Thank you Mr. President.

Robert James Ashe