Recent Ohio State University graduate Molly Shack is grateful for the Affordable Care Act.

Ms. Anjel Francisco is a talented and lovely young woman representing Southwestern Ohio as Miss Greater Butler County in the Miss Ohio pageant. If she is the winner later this month she will then compete for the title of Miss America. The recent Eastern Michigan University graduate makes it clear that she is striving to win so that she can utilize the scholarship money to pursue her Masters in Psychology. She is determined to reach her goal and is specializing in relational and family counseling. And she knows that the Affordable Care Act is working for her and thousands of others —right now.

If Anjel is successful she will travel the nation and is thereby prohibited from being employed during her reign, but she must have health insurance. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act she can stay on her parents policy until she is 26 years of age and therefore be protected as she travels and continues her education. She has a compelling personal story to tell and has decided to focus on women’s healthcare as her pageant platform with a theme of encouraging all young women to “Be Your Own Advocate” and to control their own lives and decisions to be successful.

Linda Johanek, Chief Executive Officer, Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center, discusses the ACA’s benefits for victims of family violence. Some insurance companies treat domestic violence as a pre-existing condition and deny coverage to those victimized by it. This is the only instance, she said, when the system treats the abuser much better than the victim.

Connie Wingo, denied health coverage because she had breast cancer 14 years earlier, details the need for affordable care for those with pre-existing conditions. She tells of her battle with breast cancer and her insurance company. Connie won both battles but wants to make sure others aren’t forced to fight the same fights.

Kellie Copeland, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, is best known for advocating for access to a full range of reproductive choices. But Kellie speaks here from the viewpoint of an employer frustrated that her male employees are much cheaper to insurer than her female employees

Lisa and Bob Mendelhall, owners of “Blind Bob’s”, a successful four-year-old Oregon District tavern with a musically vibrant reputation and growing cliental, are absolute proof that the health reforms enacted in 2010 are working for the residents of Montgomery County. Because of the tax credits now available to small businesses, which were included in the Affordable Care Act, they have been able to offer health insurance to their 23, mostly young, employees most of whom have never had coverage before and who are working in an industry where only 5% of workers have health benefits.

Lisa and Bob Mendelhall, owners of “Blind Bob’s”, a successful four-year-old Oregon District tavern with a musically vibrant reputation and growing cliental, are absolute proof that the health reforms enacted in 2010 are working for the residents of Montgomery County. Because of the tax credits now available to small businesses, which were included in the Affordable Care Act, they have been able to offer health insurance to their 23, mostly young, employees most of whom have never had coverage before and who are working in an industry where only 5% of workers have health benefits.