Obamacare will save the life of Stacey and Caleb Lihn’s daughter Zoe, the couple told Lawrence O'Donnell Monday. Stacey Lihn won admirers across the country last week when she spoke movingly at the Democratic National Convention in support of Obamacare. “If Mitt Romney becomes president and Obamacare is repealed, there is a good chance she’ll hit her lifetime cap,” Lihn told convention-goers, stressing the need to maintain Obamacare’s ban on lifetime coverage caps. “There’s no way we can afford the care she needs to survive.” Zoe Lihn was born with a heart defect. At just two years old, she’s already had two open-heart surgeries. She’ll need another in a year or two, at which point she’d likely reach her lifetime cap on insurance coverage—long before she can even vote.
“She has a chronic condition, she’s going to need care for her life,” Stacey told O'Donnell on The Last Word Monday. “Those medical bills just keep adding up and adding up and it’s frightening to think about her appeal and losing that coverage.”
Caleb Lihn said the fear of losing insurance coverage for Zoe is “always in the back of our mind, sometimes in the front.” Meeting the cap and going uninsured be “devastating” for the family, he said, sending them into bankruptcy and putting their family of four on welfare just to keep their daughter alive. “I’d never spoken to an audience before,” Stacey Lihn admitted to O’Donnell, when asked about her emotional plea for Obama's reelection. Romney, who recently said he wanted to keep some parts of Obamacare, then backtracked, has said that the free market would ensure coverage for those who’ve reached their limit.
“That’s just absolutely not true, that would be great if that was true,” Stacey Lihn said, as her daughter clamored for attention. Once Zoe reaches her cap, "I don't see anyone saying I'll cover that child."