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Supreme Court Hears Affordable Care Act Tax Subsidies Suit Wednesday

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- A suit that could have massive consequences for people who've gotten insured through the federal marketplace gets a hearing before the Supreme Court, today.

The suit revolves around four words in the Affordable Care Act. In the provision authorizing tax subsidies to make health plans affordable, the Act reads the subsidies will be available for plans "enrolled in through an Exchange... established by the State."

27 states -- including Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- did not establish exchanges, opting instead to use the federal exchange.

The plaintiffs claim that no one in those states should be eligible for subsidies. Antoinette Krauss of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network says that would affect most of the half a million state residents who've gotten a health plan.

"81% of them are qualifying for an average tax credit of 230 dollars a month," she says.

Krauss says re-interpreting the law now could throw the entire health care system into chaos.

For Joe Lucas, a painter with a heart condition, insurance stabilized both his health and his finances.

"Some people said the affordable care act is injurious or hurting small businesses. It is not," Lucas says. "It actually enabled me to go into business for myself because it lowered the cost of me insuring myself by two-thirds."

Lucas continued, saying, "If I don't have health insurance, I don't get my CT scan and I don't go to my cardiologist and I may not even be here today if not for this."

A decision is expected in June.

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