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Missourians Keep Health Insurance Subsidies

Ted Eytan
/
flickr

The Affordable Care Act won another major legal victory today. In a 6 to 3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a challenge to the law that would have eliminated subsidies in 34 states, including Missouri, for those buying health insurance through the federal marketplace.

“We are very excited about this ruling,” says Martha Stevens a health care organizer at the Missouri Rural Crisis Center in Columbia. “We are very happy for the hundreds of thousands of Missourians who can still afford health insurance.”

Stevens added that more than 110,000 people who live outside of Missouri’s urban centers benefit from the tax credits.

Still, many Missouri lawmakers expressed disappointment in the ruling.

“I’m disappointed that the Supreme Court once again denied the plain language and the intent of Congress in order to protect the president’s flawed health care law,” says U.S. Rep.Vicky Hartzler.

And she says the Republican-led U.S. Congress is not done challenging the health care law.

“The House of Representatives is still suing the president for some of his executive actions,” Hartzler says. “And members here are still committed to trying to repeal and replace different parts of the law that are hurting people.”

Stevens says the subsidies have been a key provision of the Affordable Care Act. Almost 200,000 Missourians receive the subsidies in all. 

A curious Columbia, Mo. native, Bram Sable-Smith has documented mbira musicians in Zimbabwe, mining protests in Chile, and the St. Louis airport's tumultuous relationship with the Chinese cargo business. His reporting from Ferguson, Mo. was part of a KBIA documentary honored by the Missouri Broadcasters Association and winner of a national Edward R. Murrow Award. He comes to KBIA most recently from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine.