Kimberly Davis of Jackson, is one of the more than 103,000 Mississippians who have health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act. The 31-year old wife and mother has Multiple Sclerosis. She struggles with debilitating pain and the loss of 50 percent of her vision in one eye. Davis takes up to seven different medications, that cost $5,600 per month. With ACA she pays $24 per month, has met her $600 deductible, and now gets her medications free.
"I'm appreciative. It's working for me. It's helping me and my family. I don't have to worry about, oh how am I going to get this. I need this medicine, but it costs so much. With this I can just go to the pharmacy." said Davis.
Mississippi is one of about 35 states that doesn't have a healthcare exchange. People can go online and apply through the federal one. Now the Supreme Court is hearing an argument to end subsidies to states without a system in place. Roy Mitchell, Executive Director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, lobbied for the bill in Congress and said it wasn't an issue. He says, any changes will be catastrophic for the state.
"The insurance companies who have kind of set themselves up for ACA, they're going to lose a lot of customers, as well as the healthcare provider industry. If we don't have insurance and we don't have hospitals, particularly rural hospitals that are already threatened because we didn't expand Medicaid, this could be the death kneel of rural hospitals." said Mitchell.
The lawsuit is funded by several conservative groups including one called The Competitive Enterprise Institute. The Supreme Court could have a decision on the case by the end of June.
