“I’m on probation right now because I wanted to get healthcare.”

Kristen Connelly, who wanted to become a paralegal, is currently on academic probation at Long Beach City College after enrolling in classes to receive healthcare.

“I pretty much enrolled just to get healthcare.

“I picked a bunch of classes that I ended up getting W’s in, I wasn’t really invested in them, just because I wanted the health care, and that’s the only way I could get health care was by enrolling in the school,” Connelly said.

Students like Connelly stand to lose their healthcare coverage as Republican members of congress adopt an agenda to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), arguing that it would allow federal-funded abortions and would cause the loss of around 650,000 jobs.

However, according to the Associated Press, those numbers have been manipulated to represent lost jobs, when it actually represents a part of the work force that would voluntarily choose early retirement as insurance outside their job becomes readily available.

Connelly said she has experienced riding on her parent’s healthcare and Medi-cal.

“It’s hard for me, I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, I can’t hold down a job because it affects me in the morning. I can’t afford health insurance because I don’t have a job, so I have this chronic illness I can’t get treatment for.

“I was on Medi-cal. That’s never a walk in the park; it sucks for whatever family has to go through there, you sit for hours and hours. It’s worse than the DMV because all these people are trying just to get basic healthcare amenities,” Connelly said.

Last week, the bill that seeks to repeal the PPACA, aptly titled the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act”, was passed in the House of Representatives with a vote of 245-189.

The bill would still have to pass in the Senate, which is largely in Democratic control, and then after passing in each chamber it would go before President Obama, who released a statement on Jan. 18 defending the bill.

“I’m willing and eager to work with both Democrats and Republicans to improve the Affordable Care Act. But we can’t go backward. Americans deserve the freedom and security of knowing that insurance companies can’t deny, cap, or drop their coverage when they need it the most, while taking meaningful steps to curb runaway health care costs,” Obama said in the statement.

According to the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, or the U.S. PIRG, if a repeal of the Affordable Care Act were successful, insurance costs for 1.2 million young Americans, including Cerritos College students, costs would skyrocket and they would no longer be able to purchase coverage under their parents’ plan.

Tony Borman, welding major, said he just received insurance for the first time in six years.

“It got me some glasses I really desperately needed for welding, and it turned around my welding game, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to take that away,” Borman said.

Borman expressed that he thinks that healthcare should be considered a human right.

“I’ve broken my arm before with no insurance. I’ve been hit by a car, totally an accident on that lady’s behalf, but it racked me up $16,000 in medical bills. Luckily, that woman’s insurance had to pay, but it gave me a good stance for how much that could really cost. And $16,000, for anyone, that’s an enormous debt,” Borman said.

Connelly said she that she currently has a $3,000 debt to Long Beach Memorial that she can’t pay, also adding that she cannot get a credit card to pay it off because she can’t establish credit as a result of that same debt.

 “From the day a child is born, [it’s] parents worry about [it’s] healthcare. That’s the most important thing to them, and I just think it should be available to everyone,” Connelly said.  

Adolphus Parks, Jr., Psychology major, said he feels that students are at an advantage by having health care coverage, but noted that if the act is repealed that there are other options.

“The health center, they just advised us to go over there and get checkups and everything. Most of our students didn’t even know we were able to do that.

“If they do repeal it, they did say we are able to have free checkups and free examinations at the health center,” Parks said.