The Affordable Care Act has affected my family directly.

After graduating from the University of Maryland, my nephew was accepted into Teach for America. Teach for America recruits college graduates to teach for two years in low-income communities throughout the U.S.

The goal of Teach for America is for its members to not only make a short-term impact on their students, but to become lifelong leaders in pursuing educational equality.

Near the end of his two-year teaching commitment last summer, my nephew was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare cancer in the bone and soft tissue. Because of the president’s insistence that children be covered under their parents’ insurance until age 26, my nephew is able to get the medical care he needs. Otherwise, he would have to resort to taxpayer-funded public welfare programs at both the state and federal level for the life-saving care he requires to cure his cancer. Now 24, and after radiation and chemotherapy, he is faced with a no-win decision — replace his tibia with a cadaver bone and have his ankle bone fused or amputate his leg.

Health insurance companies need to be reined in. Whether or not Americans are required to purchase health insurance, regulations must be in place to protect the consumer.

The inane political games by the new Republican politicians are wrong.

Health care for all is ethical, and the most pro-life stance we can take.

We must stand up and not act out of hate and fear, and support President Obama.

James Handy, Lewiston