Health Care exchanges open today. If you don’t have insurance yet, now’s your chance.

I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the Affordable Care Act when it was first passed in 2010. I was lightly interested in the legislative dealings, and I knew it was a necessary step in starting to bring the US closer to every other developed nation in the world, but didn’t have a great sense of what it did. I was glad that it seemed to be a good deal for people that couldn’t afford or whose jobs didn’t offer insurance, but that’s about it.

Last year, when the Supreme Court handed down its ACA decision I was working for the Obama campaign. The campaign is when I really started paying attention. At that point it was more difficult to not pay attention. That’s when I started finding out more about how people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get insurance, and about how insurance companies can’t cancel your plan for frivolous reasons, and so much more. I discovered the larger implications of the how the law tries to slow rising medical costs too, but that’s not really my point here.

I’ve been lucky enough to pretty much always have insurance. Part of that is being fortunate with employers covering part of it. The other part probably stems from my extreme fear that the second I don’t have it, I’ll end up injuring myself in my weekly pickup basketball game. A lot of people I know haven’t been able say the same. For whatever reason—cost, unemployment, thinking they’re invincible, whatever—I have friends and family that I know have been without any kind of health insurance for years.

That scares the shit out of me.

As far as I know, they’ve all been ok up to this point, but what happens to them if they get sick is definitely something I think about often. That makes the ACA a little bit personal for me. It means that people I love no longer have to be on the “hope nothing happens” insurance plan. Me working on that campaign means that they can all go sign up for a insurance starting today.

If you don’t have insurance, someone else is thinking the same thing about you. Go sign up now. I’m not even asking you to go sign up for the health care exchange for your state. If that works for you, great. But if you find another plan you’re eligible for and it’s cheaper, then go sign up for that one instead. I don’t care, as long as you sign up. For almost all of you it will be easier to go to the doctor than it has ever been before. You can even get money from the government to help you afford it.

If you’d like to know a little more, check out healthcare.gov. Lots of information there. Please. Do it. Here’s a video to get you started.