You're absolutely right. We shouldn't expect people who are already under the stress of losing work and finding new work to also go through arduous application

You're absolutely right. We shouldn't expect people who are already under the stress of losing work and finding new work to also go through arduous application processes for healthcare. But I still want to understand whether the ACA at least covers this case so that theoretically, if she had applied, things would be OK, or if there is a more serious gap here that even a knowledgeable person would not have been able to get medical care.