Cancer survivor to Paul Ryan: I once opposed Obamacare, but it saved my life

A cancer survivor challenged House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on his campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act — crediting President Obama’s signature health bill with saving his life.

At a CNN town hall Thursday night, Jeff Jeans, of Sedona, Ariz., told Ryan that he was a lifelong Republican and a small-business owner who had previously worked for President Ronald Reagan and President George Bush. Jeans said he was initially adamantly against Obamacare.

“When it was passed, I told my wife we would close our business before I complied with this law,” he said at the George Washington University event.

Jeans recalled how he was diagnosed with a “very curable type of cancer” at 49, and told he only had six weeks to live. He was denied treatment, he continued, because he didn’t have an insurance card — even though he offered to pay three times the cost.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today, alive,” he said.

As a small-business owner and a person with preexisting conditions, Jeans said, he relies on the Affordable Care Act to purchase his own health insurance. Then he asked Ryan a pointed question.

“Why would you repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement?” he asked.

“We wouldn’t do that. We want to replace it with something better,” Ryan responded. “First of all, I’m glad you’re standing here. I mean really, seriously!”

The crowd broke into applause and Jeans asked if he could say one more thing before Ryan proceeded with his answer.

“I want to thank President Obama from the bottom of my heart, because I would be dead if it weren’t for him,” Jeans said, receiving applause from the audience.

After a bit of small talk, Ryan said that Obamacare premiums have been rising throughout the United States: 116 percent in Arizona, 69 percent in Oklahoma, 63 percent in Tennessee, and 59 percent in Minnesota.

“This thing’s collapsing. So do we want to make sure that a person like yourself with a preexisting condition gets affordable care? Of course, of course. There is a better way to fix that problem without giving everybody else all these premium increases,” Ryan said.

Ryan said the Obamacare deductibles have gotten so high that some people are avoiding going to the doctor because they don’t even feel like they have insurance anymore. He argued that funding state high-risk pools is a safer way to guarantee that people with preexisting conditions can buy coverage, and that it would dramatically decrease the price of health insurance for everyone else.