EXCLUSIVE! GOP "fix" for King v. Burwell caught on film!

To put it less cruelly, here's a great story by Sarah Kliff of Vox about the real-world impact on one woman in Texas:

Schramm has colon cancer. Doctors diagnosed it this fall, after she started feeling stomach pains during an RV trip through Tennessee. Doctors there removed the tumor, and she's now in Austin receiving chemotherapy, which should continue through this summer.

Schramm isn't sure if she will still be able to afford her health insurance come June. She's among the 6.4 million Americans receiving subsidized coverage through Healthcare.gov. A pending Supreme Court case, King v. Burwell, argues that these subsidies are illegal — that the White House does not have the legal authority to give people like Schramm financial help.

...But Schramm doesn't really have the luxury of living without a back-up plan. She knows she needs chemotherapy and knows she can't afford it without health-insurance coverage.

She can't pay an $800 monthly premium on her $28,000 annual income (mostly from a state pension) if her subsidies disappear. She's thought about dipping into her retirement savings, but hopes to hold onto those for her actual retirement.

"I guess I could do that in the very short term since I have to finish my chemo treatment," she says.

Her best back-up plan right now, she says, is moving to a place with a state-run exchange. She'll live there for the next two years, until she turns 65 and qualifies for Medicare.

Schramm says she hasn't researched yet which states have exchanges and, beyond that, which one she might move to. She's been more focused on her medical issues.

"I haven't wrapped my head around it," she says. "I have so much going on. I've had a colostomy. I'm trying to figure out how to stop the colostomy bag from leaking. I have to wake up every two hours to adjust it. I'm starting to have side effects from chemo. So it's on the list to think about, but not at the top."

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