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The Faces of Health Care: Astrid M.

Summary: 
When the Health Insurance Marketplace opened in 2014, Astrid was finally able to purchase insurance that would cover her medical costs.

"I am a wife and mother to 2 young children, ages 6 & 10. I am recovering and alive because I had insurance."


Something didn't feel right, and Astrid knew it. And in April of 2013, she saw an ENT who found the unthinkable: a brain tumor. But Astrid, the mother of two young children, was a self-employed virtual assistant and cardio dance instructor, and she didn't have insurance -- so she couldn't afford to get the treatment she desperately needed.

After the Health Insurance Marketplace opened in 2014, however, Astrid was finally able to purchase insurance that would cover her medical costs.

"Because of Obamacare, I was able to have the surgery I needed and the tumor was removed on August 28, 2014," she wrote. "Had I not had the surgery, the surgeon said the tumor could have killed me in another 2 years."

For a cardio dance instructor, a half-marathon runner, and an active mother, the recovery has been hard. Now, she has to use a cane to walk and has partial hearing issues and facial paralysis. But she is grateful to have been able to get the treatment she needed and is taking her recovery one day at a time.

"I am just so blessed," she said. "I don't know what would have happened to me. I am so grateful to God and to the [Affordable Care Act]. Everything was covered."

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