 [Washington Examiner] Pete Buttigieg said during the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night that Obamacare saved his mother in law's life.
He said his healthcare plan was "the right answer for people like my mother-in-law whose life was saved by [Obamacare], but who is still far too vulnerable by the fact that the insurance industry does not care about her," he said, referring to the mother of his husband, Chasten Buttigieg.
Pete Buttigieg supports a healthcare system that allows people the option to buy into a government plan, which he has dubbed "Medicare for all who want it."
His mother-in-law, Sherri Glezman, has undergone treatment for skin cancer, including through surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy.
"Today was rough, after a 3-hour surgery and over 100 stitches we continue to battle the beast," Glezman wrote on Facebook May 29.
Glezman and her husband, Rhyan, live in Traverse City, Michigan, and were in the audience during the debate in Detroit. The couple owns a small business called Outdoor Dynamics Landscaping, which also sells decorations during Christmastime, according to Buttigieg's memoir Shortest Way Home.
Buttigieg didn't expand on which coverage his mother-in-law had received or what difficulties she had faced dealing with private insurers.
But Obamacare was intended to help families such as the Glezmans, who owned their own business and therefore don't receive coverage through a large company or a government program and are left to buy coverage on their own. Before Obamacare passed, health insurance companies were allowed to turn away people with preexisting conditions, such as cancer, or charge them more in premiums.
In March, Glezman spoke to UpNorthLive about her diagnosis, warning others not to use tanning beds as she did because it can cause skin cancer. She told the publication that she still gets spots surgically removed, and that during the last decade she has seen multiple doctors and used multiple treatments.
"The longer I struggle with the skin cancer, the more I want to get the word out there," she said. She encouraged others to use sunscreen and supported a bill in the Michigan legislature that would prohibit minors from using tanning salons. 
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