(Bloomberg Politics) -- Luis Lang, a 49-year-old smoker anddiabetic from South Carolina, is going to go blind unless hefigures out how to pay for expensive eye treatment.

Lang is a self-employed, uninsured handyman who stoppedworking due to his poor vision. He’s also a Republicanwho decided not to purchase Obamacare and prided himself on beingable to pay his own medical bills, but also assumed therewould be some kind of government help in the event of anemergency, the Charlotte Observer reportedTuesday. He missed the enrollment period and wouldn’t havequalified for subsidies because, since he’s not working, he makestoo little money. But he still makes too much money for Medicaid,which South Carolina did not expand.

“As each day goes by my vision get worst,” Lang, who apologizedfor grammatical mistakes due to his deteriorating vision, wrote onhis GoFund Me page. “And if I do go blind it will take [surgery] toget my vision bac[k] if they can.”

Since the Observer story was published Lang hasreceived more than $500 in donations, including several fromPPACA supporters chiding him for not signing up for thehealth care law. (Example: “I really hope that you get youroperation soon so that you can go back to work and hopefullyunderstand why [PPACA] was passed in the first place.”)

Lang’s story is the kind of personal health care anecdote thatsays something larger about the role the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act plays in people’s political and personal lives.During PPACA's first enrollment period, there was alot of debate over the validity of several PPACA horror stories:ads featuring men and women who lost their doctors or whosepremiums were suddenly unaffordable because of the newlaw.

But after nearly two years, and one Supreme Court case threatening to gut federalsubsidies, a new kind of horror story is emerging: one inwhich people who are politically opposed to the law see howmuch it could help them. Instead of conservatives pointing tohigher premiums and saying “I told you so,” it’s theleft pointing to reports of financially vulnerable people thelaw was designed to protect.

In a February, for example, The Washington Postinterviewed Erin Meredith, a “fifth-generation Republican” fromAustin with two children. Meredith lost her insurance after herdivorce and discovered she had a rare medical condition, but herincome qualified her for a $132 PPACA subsidy, bringing her premiumdown to $89 a month. Like Lang, Meredith prided herself on notrelying government assistance. Still, she signed up, andis now worried the Supreme Court will rule against thelegality of her subsidy.

“I can still feed my kids and put gas in my car,” Meredith toldThe Post. “I’m not trying to go to Cancun or carry aMichael Kors bag. I drive a 2009 Mazda, and I’m just trying to makeit in my little apartment and not be on government assistance.”

The best example of theconservative-turned-PPACA-supporter phenomenon is James Webb,known on YouTube as Hot Lead retired. In a video published lastmonth titled “This Tea Party Patriot May Vote For Hillary,”Webb—who said he’s voted for Republicans for 32 years and was acharter member of his local Tea Party Patriots chapter—said that hewas thinking of voting for Hillary Clinton because Republicans wantto repeal PPACA . Because of Obamacare, Webb said, he was able toretire at the age of 50.

Webb's story was picked up by several left-leaning newssites, including Raw Story, Huffington Post, The Nation,Talking Points Memo, and Wonkette. And even though Webb said lessthan a week later that he “had a few days to think about it” and hewouldn’t be voting for Clinton, he responded to his critics bysaying he has an income and pays for health insurance—it’ssubsidized, but not free.

It’s worth noting that the Congressional Budget Office estimatedin 2014 that PPACA would reduce the workforce by 1.5 percentto 2 percent because people would “choose to supply less labor.” Inother words, PPACA makes it easier for people who were unable toleave their jobs to start a business, switch careers, or retireearly, to leave their jobs.

The health care law was, in fact, designed to help people inthose situations: people like Lang who lack employer insurance buthave pre-existing conditions; or who, like Meredith, have lowincomes; and people like Webb who want to retire early.

In the long run, however, these stories will likely do more toconvince liberals they’re right about PPACA than change the heartsand minds of conservatives. The latest health tracking poll fromthe Kaiser Family Foundation found that 75 percent of Republicanshave a somewhat or very unfavorable view of the health care law(compared to 16 percent of Democrats), and 38 percent think the lawhas hurt them (compared to only 8 percent of Democrats).

Lang is also unconvinced. He and his wife don’t blame the statefor not expanding Medicaid, or themselves for waiting until illnessstruck to sign up for insurance. According to Helms they “blamePresident Obama and Congressional Democrats for passing a complexand flawed bill.”

“(My husband) should be at the front of the line because hedoesn’t work and because he has medical issues,” Mary Lang, Luis’wife, told the Charlotte Observer. “We call it the NotFair Health Care Act.”

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