Daniel Jimenez, 30, says he lost his father to cancer several years ago. His father was employed at the time he fell ill, but was not covered by health insurance.

Jimenez, a transportation modeler from Portland who recently moved to New Mexico, thinks insurance could have saved his father's life.

"He avoided going to the doctor until it was too late," Jimenez wrote in a Change.org petition last week.

"As Congress and President Trump try to pass a new healthcare law," he continued, "I'm reminded of my father and whether he would have made it if he had early access to cost-effective health care."

"If Congress is willing to drastically cut healthcare subsidies for most people," he wondered, "are they willing to have the same rules apply to them and their families?"

So, he decided to find out. He started a petition to "remove health-care subsidies for members of Congress and their families."

Currently, members of Congress and their staff are required by the Affordable Care Act to "obtain coverage by health plans created under the Affordable Care Act or coverage offered via an Affordable Insurance Exchange."

Under the Republican's new plan, introduced last week, it's possible that Congress will go back to pre-ACA days when they had "the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program," what The New York Times called, "a supermarket offering 300 private health plans" that was known as cheap, good and inclusive.

"A lot of Members of Congress promote choice as an American value," wrote Jimenez in his petition, "which is all the more reason for them to have to continue to choose their own health coverage from the free marketplace. If private health care is good for the American citizen, it should also be good for the people that defend it."

Over email, Jimenez told us that the response to his petition, which has garnered over 300,000 signatures in a week "has been amazing."

"There are also some really sad and scary comments about people needing health insurance because of pre-existing conditions and are fearing for their lives if they lose their health care plan," he said. "An interesting fact is that people from both side of the political spectrum seem to agree with me about Congress not receiving any special treatment that regular people do not have."

If the petition receives 500,000 signatures, it will be delivered to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump.

When asked if he thought that 500,000 signatures would force Congress to act to make sure they don't receive special benefits that the average citizen does not, Jimenez said, "Honestly, even if the petition gathered 5 million signatures, I don't think members of Congress would do something as drastic as that."

"No one in their right mind would refuse subsidies or any type of assistant when it comes to health coverage," he told us. "Especially when prices related to healthcare keep rising."

"Do I think is fair for lawmakers to put themselves in the same boat as the people that do not get any type of subsidizes?" Jimenez continued. "Absolutely. Sadly, I don't see that ever happening."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker