Health Care Blog

Email: "It Changed My Life, it Could Change Yours:"

Student Elana Simon sent the following message to the White House email list today, sharing how Precision Medicine -- a cutting-edge new way of treating disease -- changed her life, and how it could change the lives of millions more Americans.

Didn't get the email? Sign up to receive messages like this one here.

Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma.

It's not a term that any kid typically knows, or should ever have to learn first-hand. But when I turned 12 years old, that was my diagnosis -- and it became a defining part of my life.

It's a specific kind of liver cancer that affects children. It's rare -- you don't see it in your average patient. So I knew, even then, that it would take something more than a generic treatment to cure this unique disease.

So I got to work. And thanks to incredible technological advances and the help of a community of scientists and fibrolamellar patients like me, I was able to identify the change in the DNA that leads to this kind of cancer. Rather than focusing broadly on all liver cancer, I examined a precise patient group -- which allowed for such a precise discovery.

Today, I'm 19 years old, in college, and in remission.

There's a name for the approach we used. It's called "Precision Medicine" -- an approach that uses data-driven treatments that are unique to your own body. It's a proven way to treat more difficult diseases. And it's a field of medicine the President's 2016 budget is investing in.

Learn more about the President's Precision Medicine initiative and why these tailored treatments are going to be more successful.

See What These 10 People Said to the President About the Affordable Care Act:

President Barack Obama meets with people who have written him letters explaining how they have benefited from the Affordable Care Act, during a roundtable meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Feb. 3, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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As House Republicans are voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act -- today actually marks more than 50 times they've voted to repeal or undermine it -- the law continues to help and save the lives of millions of Americans.

Thanks to ACA, countless people have been able to get regular checkups at the doctor, fix life-threatening health problems, and not experience financial ruin as a result.

A number of people who have benefited from the law have written the President just to say "thank you" -- and today, the President met with 10 of those letter-writers here at the White House. Their stories are below.

Unfortunately, there are still millions of uninsured Americans who don't know why it's so important to get covered, or how they stand to benefit. And it's on each and every one of us to change that.

If you know someone who needs to get health insurance, share these stories with them. And if you're the one that needs to get covered, visit HealthCare.gov right now and sign up for a plan before the February 15 deadline.

Derrick Benn, San Francisco, CA

When the Health Insurance Marketplace opened in 2014, Derrick shopped on California's state-based health exchange and realized that he qualified for Medicaid.

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