Story highlights Tiffany Koehler: We all want to thrive and "make America great again"

Koehler's cancer care and treatment so far has cost more than $1 million

Hartford, Wisconsin (CNN) Tiffany Koehler was raised in foster care, is biracial, a veteran and a cancer survivor.

She also is a former candidate for the Wisconsin state legislature. She ran as a Republican and once was anti-Obamacare. Today she says she supports it -- mostly.

Her biggest objection remains the mandate that individuals must obtain health insurance coverage. "We all want to thrive," said Koehler, "and make America great again, as (President Donald Trump) says, but we can't do that if we're struggling to pay bills."

Tiffany Koehler today is more supportive of the Affordable Care Act.

"People have to be able to get to their doctors. People have to be able to get their medicine," said Koehler, "and out of any country in the world we should be doing it."

Two years ago, after losing her job, she did something she always had wanted to do; she ran for a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. She lost, and in the aftermath of that disappointment, got some awful news -- she had cancer. Koehler had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

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