WASHINGTON – It was hard for Ray Roberts, 45, to gauge the health of his mother, Hannah Brown, after she lost her job and her health insurance.
Brown, who lived in Indiana, had insurance from the camp where she worked, said Roberts, a leader of Pittsburgh’s Citizens Climate Lobby. Then in her 50s, she was diagnosed with renal hypertension and Parkinson’s disease.
Brown died in 1999. She was 58.
“We don’t want anyone to have to go through what we did,” Roberts said outside the Supreme Court Wednesday. He came with his family to honor his mother’s memory.
They were among many on both sides of the issue who protested outside the Supreme Court as justices heard oral arguments that challenged the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The decision in King v. Burwell, which questions who can receive the tax credits available to help pay for health insurance under the act, may erase the health-care subsidies of millions of people in 34 states.
Under the act, states were invited to create health-care exchanges where people could buy insurance plans.
This is the third time the Supreme Court has heard a case against the Affordable Care Act. The first was in 2012 when Chief Justice John Roberts provided the vote that upheld the act. Last year in the Hobby Lobby case, the court said some companies did not have to provide coverage for birth control.
On a cold, rainy day, protesters from conservative, medical and women’s groups stood on the sidewalk outside the Supreme Court.
Many held signs that ranged from the comical, “I don’t always try to take away health care, but when I do I make sure to take it away from seven million women,” to the serious, “IRS control makes me sick.”
Pop music blared from speakers set up by opposing groups, especially when someone was talking from the opposing side.
Robert’s wife, Michelle Boyle, is a registered nurse with Allegheny General Hospital. Boyle told a crowd of protesters that the justices should not deny Americans tax credits because they help people purchase life-saving health insurance.
Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, disagreed.
Poe said President Barack Obama changes the law whenever he doesn’t like something.
“No president has the ability to change the law because, as we all learned in ninth grade, maybe not all of us learned, most people learned in ninth grade that laws are made by Congress, laws are not made by the executive,” he said.
Poe has voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Congress is becoming an omniscient group, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said.
“We heard from people who said, ‘Get the government out of my bedroom,’ and now they’ve welcomed the government into their bedroom, the government into their bathroom, their den, their TV, their Internet, and it goes on and on,” said Gohmert, who is for limited government.
Adrienne McLain, 26, a Planned Parenthood representative, welcomed the Affordable Care Act.
McLain, who was recently diagnosed with a chronic illness that she wouldn’t specify, said because of the act she was able to stay on her parent’s health-insurance plan until this year and then enrolled in a new plan that fits her budget.
Before the act, Delma Limones, 22, a Texas State University student, said health care felt like a luxury, not a right.
Limones said the Affordable Care Act has provided her with a sense of security.
“We should not have to choose paying rent for the month or a costly medical bill,” she said.
Reach reporter Jordan Gass-Pooré at jordan.gass-poore@scripps.com or 202-408-1490. SHFWire stories are free to any news organization that gives the reporter a byline and credits the SHFWire. Like the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire interns on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
About Jordan Gass-Pooré - Spring 2015
Jordan Gass-Pooré is a Spring 2015 reporter for the SHFWire from Texas State University.