Hi, my name is Audrey Chavez, and I’m from Bakersfield, California.  My husband Martin and I have three children, and we own a small business here locally.  For us, health care has always been an issue, being able to afford it and being able to provide it on a continual basis not only for our own family but also for 80 employees.  Recently, a few months ago, my husband became very ill.  We had to call an ambulance and he was taken to the hospital.  He was in the hospital for 4 days, where they began to run tests and find out what was going on with him. 

For myself, all I could focus on was Martin, and for my husband, all he could focus on was getting back to work, wondering how much it was going to cost, and just the fear of not being able to maintain our livelihood, and how were we going to pay for these health care costs.  It is a real concern for us, and being a small working family, we’re looking to be able to maintain our livelihood as well as be able to access health care not only in a state of emergency such as this, but just throughout our lives, so that we can prevent any major costs and maintain our health and quality of life.