On an idealistic level, I still believed in the ACA. I empathized with the stories of people for whom it has made a difference: small business owners and freelancers, people with pre-existing conditions, unemployed near-retirees too young to qualify for Medicare.

But when I found a new job and was back on workplace insurance again, I didn't think much about the indirect benefits that the ACA continued to offer. Then I read three random things that made the importance of the ACA click into place.

One was a study I stumbled on while researching employee wellness programs about how truck drivers' poor health can increase their risk of getting in an accident.

I take a lot of road trips across the western U.S. When I'm traveling on Colorado's crowded I-70 and Oregon's often foggy and rainy I-5, it's the semi-trucks that make me nervous – especially ones pulling double or even triple trailers. One moment of inattention can cause a pileup, and all we can do is hope the drivers of these beasts are alert, skillful, and cautious.

In a recent study on truckers' health from the University of Utah School of Medicine, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers Matthew S. Thiese, PhD, Richard Hanowski PhD et al. examined the medical records from over 49,000 commercial truck drivers. Their findings led them to conclude that truck drivers with three or more medical conditions are two to four times more likely to be in an accident.

According to Newswise, which reported on the study, "The rate of crashes resulting in injury among all truck drivers was 29 per 100 million miles traveled. For drivers with three or more ailments, the frequency increased to 93 per 100 million miles traveled." This was even after other factors such as age and experience were taken into consideration.

The medical conditions themselves might be minor. But combined, they could have a greater effect on the trucker's overall health and performance, the study said.

Granted, many truck drivers get health insurance through their employer or association. But some independent operators must purchase it themselves, and do so through the ACA. It's in my best interest – our best interest – that they have insurance and be as healthy as they can be.

The second thing I read was a random sentence from an article by our own Marlene Satter: "4 tenets of health care for an aging population."

It's about the American Geriatric Society's letter to then-president-elect Trump arguing that the ACA must continue and explaining how it helps to protect retirees.

The sentence that hit me, however, wasn't about the ACA's influence on the current geriatric set. It was about its effect on the future: "But the care given to younger people affects how healthy they are—and how much must be spent on Medicare for them—after they turn 65."

You spend the money now on young people or you spend more later when they're old people.

And there's going to be a whole lot more old people later. The U.S. is aging. The combination of decreasing fertility rates and an increasing lifespan over the past 20 years is making it happen.

In the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control, "The number of persons aged >65 years is expected to increase from approximately 35 million in 2000 to an estimated 71 million in 2030, and the number of persons aged >80 years is expected to increase from 9.3 million in 2000 to 19.5 million in 2030."

Wouldn't better health care now, fueled by insurance provided by the Affordable Care Act, make us a stronger, healthier nation of old folks in the future?

The third thing that caught my eye was a study Beyond Health Effects? Examining the Social Consequences of Community Levels of Uninsurance Pre-ACA, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Researchers wanted to know about the social impact of health insurance on a community. Using census data and surveys of citizens, they compared low insured communities with high insured ones. Their results showed that people were more engaged with their community when they lived in a place where there were high levels of insured people.

Researcher Tara McKay, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University summed it up nicely: "You can't participate in social life and civic engagement without having health first."

Given Trump's recent executive order, the future of the ACA is very much in question. No matter what happens, one thing's clear: The ripple effects of the ACA extend way beyond our hospitals, clinics, and businesses.

Something to think about next time you're driving down the highway.