The Letter the President Carried:

Today at 2:30 pm ET in Nashville, TN, President Obama is participating in a discussion on how we can build on the progress we've made under the Affordable Care Act. Watch live:

A letter from Natoma Canfield, a woman from Ohio that President Barack Obama met who didn’t have health insurance, hangs on the wall in the hall between the Oval Office and the President's Private Office in the West Wing. June 28, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

More than five years ago, as Congress engaged in heated debates over the Affordable Care Act, President Obama carried a single piece of paper with him every single day: this letter from Natoma Canfield.

For years, Natoma did everything right. She bought health insurance and paid her premiums on time. But one day, the fear of so many became her reality: She was diagnosed with cancer. She fought for her health and had been living cancer-free for some time, but her insurance company kept raising her insurance rates, year after year. She needed the coverage, but she couldn't afford it. So she had to surrender her health plan and live merely on the hope that she stayed healthy. 

That's the story she shared in her letter to the President. Today, Natoma's letter hangs just outside the Oval Office. Natoma herself, still cancer-free, is joining President Obama in Nashville, Tennessee today as a representative of the millions of people whose lives the Affordable Care Act has changed. 

Here's the original letter that Natoma wrote and the President carried with him: 

"I carried Natoma’s story with me every day of the fight to pass this law. It reminded me of all the Americans, all across the country, who have had to worry not only about getting sick, but about the cost of getting well."

-- President Obama