We Democrats in my rural, very red Virginia county are sponsoring ACA sign-up clinics 22 and 29 March at our local library. In preparation for the clinics, several of us volunteers spent a few hours helping our regional navigator as he worked with uninsured people to help them get insurance.

One of the people he assisted was a single mother of three -- husband killed a few years ago in an industrial accident. She works a part-time cashier's job and cleans houses; her mother and sister take turns keeping the kids. Of course she has no medical insurance and doesn't remember when she or any of the three children saw a doctor.

The Navigator found her a policy that pays 95% of her medical costs, has lots of free stuff (mainly regular exams and check-ups for her and the kids), and with subsidies will cost her $51 a month.

She couldn't believe she didn't have to pay the Navigator. She didn't believe she did not have to promise to vote for Democrats. She didn't believe it when the Navigator printed her insurance card on the spot. When the fact of what she had done finally sunk in, she couldn't stop crying and hugging everyone in sight. Neither could the rest of us.

Episodes such as this make me proud to be a Democrat and make me realize how fortunate I am to have Medicare and TriCare For Life. And it makes me want to punch out the next dozen or so Republicans I hear spreading bullshit about the ACA.

