If the Supreme Court does not uphold Obamacare, thousands of Pennsylvanians will suffer needlessly

Last week, HHS released the latest enrollment numbers for the insurance marketplace. They show that 471,930 Pennsylvanians selected a plan in this past open enrollment period. Of them, 81% are getting financial help through the Affordable Care Act's tax credit.

More than two-thirds of enrolled Pennsylvanians (69%) have been able to purchase coverage for less than $100, and the average tax credit in Pennsylvania is $239. The Affordable Care Act is working, in large part due to the financial assistance it provides that allows working and middle-income Pennsylvanians to afford to buy coverage.

It's this critical financial assistance that now hangs in the balance with the looming decision in King v. Burwell, the case currently before the Supreme Court. A ruling against the ACA in this case, which challenges the notion that Congress intended for all Americans to receive financial help through the law's tax credits, would take away health insurance from more than 8 million Americans, including more than 400,000 in Pennsylvania, and cause premiums to spike for millions more. The resulting chaos would ripple through the health care system, affecting consumers and health care providers across the country.

There is no legal basis for the Supreme Court to rule against the ACA in this case, and in doing so, take away health coverage from millions of Americans. When Congress wrote and passed the ACA, everybody — Republicans, Democrats and the Congressional Budget Office alike — agreed that the tax credits would be available in all states. The text, history, and intent of the law make clear that premium tax credits should be available to any eligible person, whether they live in a state with its own marketplace, like New York, or one with a federal marketplace, like Pennsylvania.

This case is simply the latest chapter in the years-long partisan political campaign to achieve what opponents of the law have not been able to do in Congress or at the ballot box: repeal this life-saving law.

It's important for Pennsylvanians to understand that ruling against the ACA in King v. Burwell would have no immediate impact on their ability to use premium tax credits to lower their health insurance premiums this year. In the unlikely event the Supreme Court rules against providing tax credits, no one who has or is currently receiving them will be required to repay them.

However, a ruling against the law would shatter the gains we've made in recent years reducing the uninsured rate and connecting hundreds of thousands of hardworking Pennsylvanians with health insurance, protecting both their physical and economic health. Shutting off the law's financial assistance in Pennsylvania and 36 other states with a federally-run marketplace would destabilize the private insurance market, drive up prices, and create the insurance "death spiral" we've fought so hard to counteract.

Without the ACA's tax credits, fewer healthy people would be able to afford coverage and enroll, leaving only the sickest covered. Insurers would then drive up rates, forcing more healthy people out of the risk pool and making costs unsustainable for individuals, families and small businesses.

The Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN) works with individuals and families every day, helping them access health coverage by providing one-on-one assistance through the enrollment process. Since open enrollment began in November, PHAN has helped over 1,200 individuals enroll in both the Health Insurance Marketplace (healthcare.gov) and other public health insurance programs.

Every day, we see folks who are able to access health insurance because tax credits have helped make coverage affordable. We have helped single mothers, working parents, farmers, home health care workers and small business owners. One thing is clear: people from all over Pennsylvania are finding affordable plans and enrolling in coverage.

We've come too far to be forced back to square one. Despite intense partisan opposition and repeated attempts to block, weaken and undermine the Affordable Care Act, it's still standing — and so are the millions of Americans for whom it's provided life-saving access to care.