Read the Original Letter Written by the Pennsylvania Woman Whose Story the President Told Today:

Today, speaking from the Catholic Health Association's annual assembly in Washington, D.C., President Obama outlined the state of health care in America, now that the Affordable Care Act has become part of the fabric of our health care system. In it, he told the story of Debra Lea Oren of Palmer, Pennsylvania. Debra, who suffers from osteoarthritis so severe it put her in a wheelchair, couldn't walk or stand for years. She was in constant pain.

Today, she's back on her feet. Here's why:

Debra was able to enroll in an affordable health plan that covered the surgery she needed to help her walk on her own again. As a result, she can walk to the grocery store. She can cook and exercise. She can get herself to her doctors' appointments on her own two feet (and two new knees).

“I walk with my husband Michael and hold hands," she wrote to the President in February. "It’s like a whole new world for me.”

This is what health reform has meant to millions of Americans.

Read the full letter that she wrote the President in February of 2015 — and then get a full look at what a century of reform in the making looks like.

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