Congress, the Doctors Will See You Now

For 25 years, Mai Khanh Tran has been a pediatrician in Orange County, California. Most of her patients come from working-class migrant families. And the recent months have not been easy for them. Two weeks ago, just after the House of Representatives voted to pass the AHCA—the bill that would repeal Obamacare—Tran received a call from a patient whose daughter has a brain tumor.

“She works in a nail shop and she couldn’t get health care for her children until the ACA,” says Tran. “When her kid was diagnosed, she had good care—expensive, but good. After the election, we cried in my office because we realized that this was going to affect her daughter’s life soon. We didn’t think it would be this soon. She called me last week, petrified. Now that her child has a pre-existing condition, she’s terrified she won’t be able to afford her premiums.”