JMU Students Already Helped by Health Reform
Celebrate Law’s 2nd Anniversary
Young Adults Urge Supreme Court: Don’t Take Away Benefits, Protections Against Insurance Companies’ Anti-Consumer Practices
Students Call on Attorney General Cuccinelli and Governor McDonnell to Stop Blocking Health Care Law
HARRISONBURG– Local college students will gather tomorrow at 11am at the student commons at JMU to commemorate the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and to share their stories of how they have personally benefited from the law. They will illustrate how the law is already helping 53,900 young Virginians. They will call upon the Supreme Court to uphold the law and for Attorney General Cuccinelli stop blocking further implementation in Virginia.
Melanie Goff is one of many JMU students who will benefit from the law.
“I graduate in May and I am very concerned about finding a job, let alone a good job with health insurance. The Affordable Care Act allows me to stay on my parents’ plan, giving me the ability to be flexible in a tough job market,” said Goff. “A lot of young people don’t see the need for health care until they really need it and it’s not there. But a lot can happen when you are away from home at school. Many of my fellow students also did not have access to preventative care until the health care law was passed. The health care law makes it so that young people have access to preventative care, which saves on health care costs further down the road.”
Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, Attorney General Cuccinelli has consistently opposed the new law, which already provides free preventive care, protection against discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, a ban on lifetime coverage limits and a provision allowing young Virginians to stay on their parents’ plan until they are 26 years old.
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing legal challenges to the ACA from March 26 to 28 in Washington, D.C. A decision to overturn the law or any of its provisions could result in the loss of benefits to seniors, women, children and families. Students will be collecting signatures for a petition asking Attorney General Cuccinelli and Governor McDonnell to stop blocking the health care law.
The JMU rally will coincide with more than 300 other events taking place across the country this week with seniors, children, small-business owners and young people coming together to explain how they are already being helped by the Affordable Care Act and to highlight what is at stake as opponents of reform work overtime to take away those benefits in state legislatures, in Congress and at the U.S. Supreme Court.
WHO: JMU Virginia Organizing Chapter
WHAT: Celebration of the Affordable Care Act
WHEN: Friday, March 23, 11:00am-1:00pm
WHERE: Student Commons, JMU, Harrisonburg, VA
***Visuals: cake, signs, decorations***
