U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said that her passionate speech to colleagues about her personal family history and her battle with cancer during debate over a Republican health care proposal last month “really touched people.”

“My remarks connected to them. Why? They know what it’s like,” Hirono said Thursday, recalling her remarks July 27 against a last-ditch effort by GOP senators to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The GOP effort failed by a narrow margin.

Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, told her colleagues that she lost a sister in Japan, where she was not hospitalized for pneumonia. And recently being diagnosed with kidney cancer herself, Hirono said she wouldn’t know what to do if she lacked health insurance.

“I am fighting kidney cancer, and I’m just so grateful that I had health insurance so that I could concentrate on the care that I needed rather than how the heck I was going to afford the care that would probably save my life,” the 69-year-old senator told her colleagues that night.

Hirono, who was on Maui during a congressional break, said in an interview at The Maui News that it is unusual for lawmakers to take a personal approach on the floor of the Senate. But her May cancer diagnosis brought her an immediate connection to what millions of families are going through.

“I thought I had something more to say, and so, I approached my remarks with trepidation because it was personal. I never talked about my sister’s death before. So I was very concerned about getting through my remarks,” Hirono said.

Her speech has been viewed more than 3 million times.

“I will keep on focusing on health care as a right and not a privilege,” she said.

If she didn’t have insurance, Hirono said, she would have to consider mortgaging her home. As a measure of the individual financial impact of the Affordable Care Act, she said that bankruptcies declined as more people had access to health insurance.

President Donald Trump continues to oppose former President Barack Obama’s health care law, which Trump has said will “implode.” Hirono said that she is working with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on shoring up the law, which she admits is not perfect.

Some Republicans also have said they will work with Democrats on fixing the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold hearings on proposals when Congress returns in September.

As for Hirono’s health, she said that she is receiving care at MedStar Georgetown University and her primary doctor is a “premier doctor on kidney cancer. ”

“I know I’m going to be in the best of care,” she said.

And Hirono plans to seek re-election next year.

“There’s lots to do, there is lots to get agitated about these days,” she said.

Among the many things that have Hirono agitated is Trump’s stance on raising the debt ceiling. Earlier this week, the president threatened a federal shutdown unless Congress provides funds for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, a campaign promise.

The Treasury Department has said that the ceiling must be raised by Sept. 29. If not, the U.S. would not be able to borrow money or pay its bills, leading to a shutdown of the federal government.

Hirono called Trump’s threats “very irresponsible statements.”

“This is why people are expressing concerns about his ability to understand or care,” Hirono said.

Asked about recent talk about Trump’s impeachment, Hirono said that she has not yet seen movement or talks in the Republican-held House. Articles of impeachment would have to be approved by the House with the Senate conducting a trial.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., has announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump, citing potential obstruction of justice and violations of the U.S. Constitution. He pointed to Trump’s response to violence in Charlottesville, Va., this month that left one person dead and dozens injured. Instead of condemning the acts of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and members of the Ku Klux Klan, Trump said there “very fine people on both sides” and blamed both sides for the violence.

“There needs to be a lot more Republicans that question this president,” Hirono said.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.