Affordable Care Act
Colleen Tommins Leard: Covered Today, Worried About Tomorrow
Colleen Tommins Leard, a 58-year-old living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, understands the health care system from both sides. She trained as a surgical technician and spent years working in the operating room. Today, she works as a consultant in educational settings, helping hospitals partner with schools and contributing to legislative efforts related to health care. But despite working in health care, Colleen still struggles with the rising cost of coverage.
Nancy Weaver is a fiber artist and weaver from Ashe County, North Carolina, who spent years without health insurance after losing her husband and falling into the ACA coverage gap. Without coverage, she went years without adequate treatment for a debilitating autoimmune disease, eventually reaching a mental health crisis. When steady employment finally made her eligible for ACA subsidies, insurance gave her access to the specialist care, medication management, and therapy that she describes as life-changing. Now, she fears losing it again.
Andy Keith is a 26-year-old resident of Wichita, Kansas who depends on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace to manage her complex medical conditions. As a teenager, she was diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases, Graves and Hashimoto’s, and a thyroid imbalance. Up until last year, Andy was covered by her parents’ private plan. Now, she has a marketplace plan that provides full coverage for her medical care.
Anne Marie Schneider lives in Durham, North Carolina, and has spent more than three decades working across nearly every corner of the health care system. After losing her job with only days to act, Anne Marie and her husband turned to the ACA Marketplace. Given their circumstances, the family qualified for enhanced ACA tax credits, but without subsidies, the cost was impossible.
Renee Arnold has spent her life caring for people with disabilities, yet she cannot afford health insurance for her own husband. As premiums skyrocket, she faces impossible choices between housing, health care, and financial survival.
Amy Barley's work at the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange is personal. She lives with her own chronic health condition: type 1 diabetes. Amy's experience fighting to keep the coverage she needs, particularly access to her insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) has motivated her to continue helping patients fight back against insurance denials and skyrocketing costs.
Ellen Allen, a resident of Pinch, West Virginia, is the Executive Director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, a nonprofit advocating for accessible and affordable health care across the state. She is also a mother to an adult with disabilities. Ellen’s organization is too small to offer a health insurance plan, so she turned to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to meet her own health care needs. 
When the cost of Lori Lay's ACA premiums exploded into half of her income, she faced the devastating risk of her family becoming uninsured. When her son suffered a serious car accident, she realized just how dangerous that possibility could be.
Jen S., a former teacher in Arizona, has always prioritized staying insured and maintaining her health. She grew up with a mother who was a nurse, and for most of her life she had stable employer-sponsored coverage through her teaching job. That stability began to unravel after she left the classroom.
As an engineer, Steve Ramirez understands complex systems. But finding comprehensive health insurance coverage when costs skyrocket has become increasingly difficult. With ACA tax credits now expiring, Steve faces a 642% increase in cost.