Guilford Man Is Alive Today Because of Affordable Care Act: Sen. Chris Murphy

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

GUILFORD, CT – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy used the example of a Guilford resident Monday evening when he and other Democrats held the Senate floor in Washington to protest the plan by President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-held House of Representatives and Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Murphy, who used the same filibuster action last year, unsuccessfully, after a nightclub shooting rampage in Florida to try and force Republicans to enact gun control measures, this time told the story of Josh Scussell of Guilford.

“Josh was diagnosed with stage-4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” said Murphy. “This is what Josh says. He will tell you the unvarnished truth: "The Affordable Care Act is entirely responsible for me still being alive."

Murphy said the Affordable Care Act is entirely responsible for Scussell still being alive.

Murphy told his fellow senators Scussell’s story.

“He relapsed after an additional diagnosis before he turned 26. And the only way he was able to get insurance was because of the Affordable Care Act, which allowed him to stay on his mother's insurance until he turned 26. During the course of his treatments, he underwent stem cell transplants which could be up to $200,000 each.

“Because of those transplants, he needed on-going weekly treatments at a cost of $10,000 per treatment. He recalled how he was getting his first stem cell transplant and he was in the hospital during the Supreme Court deliberations on the Affordable Care Act and he said, "I was in the hospital bed watching the TV when the Supreme Court approved the Affordable Care Act, and I just remember the feeling I had in my body. It was feeling that I had never experienced before because I knew that I was going to be taken care of."

“Now Josh is in remission, and a few more years of being cancer-free, the doctors tell him he might be out of the woods. But he says, “I am more fearful -- I am more fearful for others in my position. I would not have been able to afford those treatments if it wasn't for the Affordable Care Act.”

Republicans in Congress have insisted they have a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act and that Democrats are just playing politics.

Image via Sen. Murphy's office

Josh is 2nd from left in photo, which is at the top of the story, and not the video image directly above it