I strongly support the health care law and want to ensure that it is fully implemented and given time to work. My health and the health of my family depend on the health care law. The new health care law has already started to benefit my family and me.

As a breast cancer survivor, the medications I take to keep me in remission cost over $600 per month.  As a senior, I have Medicare Part D, which covers half of my medications. in June, like many seniors, I am in the dreaded Donut hole. That meant that Medicare no longer pays anything for medications the rest of the year.

One of the many reasons that I support the health care law is that in ten years, it will close that Donut Hole. In the meantime, many seniors who struggle to afford their prescriptions have already received a $250 check for a prescription drug rebate. Because of the health care law, the Donut hole will shrink. This June, I will automatically receive 50% off my cancer medication.

But the benefits of the health care law for my family are the ones I am most excited about. The most important part for my family is the end to pre-existing conditions, especially for children.  My six-year-old grandson Tucker can no longer be denied due to pre-existing conditions and we no longer have to worry about him getting covered.

Tucker is a healthy, active six year old but last summer; he had open heart surgery to repair a congenital heart defect. It was a comfort to know that we did not have to worry about him having health insurance coverage. Having a child or grandchild with a serious heart defect is scary enough without having to worry about whether he will have the care he needs.

No one should have to go through the trauma of having a sick child and then worrying about whether their health care will be covered or whether they will ever be eligible for insurance again in their lives. And now, thanks to the health care law no one will ever have to go through that again.

We are thankful beyond words for the health care law. Yet, we fear that if Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli are successful in blocking the health care law, we will go back to a system that is broken with no solution in sight. My family, my state, and my country cannot afford to go back.