Kansans with marketplace health plans relieved over Supreme Court ruling

June 26--If Mary Schumock hadn't gotten a health insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act, doctors might have never found a lump in her breast last year.

"It's been a blessing. ... Because of the Affordable Care Act, I've been able to do things like get yearly mammograms," said Schumock, who had surgery and recovered.

"I did not vote for Obama. I'm not a Democrat and I don't like very much about him. But this is one thing I would say I would go to bat for him on."

Schumock, 54, who runs a day care at her home in Wichita, signed up for a plan in December 2013.

Schumock pays $147 a month for insurance on the federal marketplace, which was set up under the Affordable Care Act -- more commonly called Obamacare.

Like many of the nearly 70,000 Kansans who have health plans on the federal marketplace, Schumock has been anxiously awaiting news from the Supreme Court on whether it would uphold subsidies on the plans at HealthCare.gov, which allow consumers to shop for individual health plans offered by a variety of companies.

"It's been absolutely amazing for me," she said. "I have been a single parent for 12 years and only got health care again two years ago when the Affordable Care Act was passed. My boys had (health insurance) but not me."

Her tax credit is almost $300 a month, and had the court not upheld the act, she wouldn't have been able to afford her plan, she said.

'Dancing in the streets'

When Cynthia Wilson's husband, a veteran, lost his job in the oil industry in March, they also lost their health care coverage.

"We didn't know what we were going to do," Wilson said. "We knew about the ACA. I'm a Democrat and active in the party, but I never thought we'd need it."

They signed up for the silver plan, paying $154 a month for both of them.

With Thursday's news, Wilson and her husband, who live in Wichita, were ecstatic.

"We would be dancing in the streets if wasn't 100 degrees," she said.

But if the Supreme Court hadn't upheld the subsidies, Wilson and her husband would be without insurance, she said.

"I was watching it with a great deal of interest because I knew it would affect us," she said.

"The back-up plan was being uninsured. There was no back-up plan. We would have been waiting it out until he got a job or we were old enough for Medicare. Both of us are in good health, but that doesn't help if there's a catastrophic event."

She hopes now that the courts have upheld the law -- for a second time -- that people and lawmakers will start to accept it.

"There will come a point where the people, whether conservative or liberal, will say enough is enough. This thing has been ratified, solidified over and over again. Move on," she said.

'Why chance it?'

Kelley Monaghan, 61, was paying twice as much for her health insurance before signing up for a plan under the Affordable Care Act.

Monaghan, who lives in Augusta and works for a dry cleaner, now pays $220 a month for an individual plan.

"I've been following it closely," she said. "The plan that I had before was a good plan. I paid a good premium because I wanted good coverage. (On the marketplace) I wanted something comparable."

She was one of the first people to sign up for insurance on the plan a year two years ago and had to deal with the website's many glitches.

For those who still haven't gotten insurance, Monaghan thinks they should take a look at the available plans in case they need coverage.

"Why chance it? That's crazy," she said. "Check it out and see what deal you can get."

Politically, she isn't sure whether the Supreme Court ruling will make much of a difference.

"I think a lot of people already had their minds made up," she said. "But it just really made a difference to those of us that have it and don't want to lose it."

Reach Kelsey Ryan at 316-269-6752 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @kelsey_ryan.

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