Gwinnett County, Georgia, is one of those places in deep-red America where there's a
growing sense of doom about what the Supreme Court might do in a few weeks to Obamacare, when it decides
King v. Burwell. About one in eight residents of the county gets insurance through Obamacare. They got that insurance on the federal exchange, because the state's Republican leadership refused to establish one for the state. That means that, along with 33 other states, the court could take subsidies away from Georgia if it rules that the law doesn't allow for subsidies to go there.
"I couldn't buy insurance for myself after my husband retired, not until Obamacare," said Ghada Nadhan, 63, an assistant manager of a food store who immigrated from Syria more than two decades ago. "Now I am afraid." […]
Charles Pierre, 58, a Haitian immigrant and substitute teacher […] said he likes the security the insurance brings but would have to drop it if the subsidy disappears and the price goes up again.
"It's going to be a struggle for me to pay for it," he said. "What I earn is not changed."
Valerie Dalton, 64, got her Obamacare insurance in February, after her banking job was eliminated and she could no longer afford the $700 monthly price to stay on her former employer's plan.
She said her Obamacare premiums are about $360 per month, a price she still thinks is high but that she won't have to pay for long. Next month she'll turn 65 and be eligible for Medicare.
"I'm not politically active at all, but I feel badly that they are threatening this," she said. "I think it's really sad."
It would be very sad for Georgia, to say the least, where Republican leadership is unlikely to take any action to set up an exchange. It would be sad for most of the states. So far, Pennsylvania and Delaware are the only two states publicly
taking action to try to avert potential disaster, though other states could be working on plans more quietly. Then there are states like Arizona, where the legislature actually passed a law preventing them from creating an exchange if the court rules against the government.
Of course, the problem could be easily rectified by a Republican Congress with a simple, one-page bill. It could be, but it won't. Because the politics of Obamacare trumps the people they represent.