Liam Julian

By early Thursday the mercury had swelled and so had the crowds, pushing, from the base of the Supreme Court’s steps, across 1st Street NE and into the Capitol Grounds. Press were everywhere, as were gawkers and activists of all stripes with their bullhorns and sundry signs. Some came in costume (though any nationalized naughty nurses stayed home). The belly dancers, in particular, put on a real show, gamely squirming their way through the masses.

Rosemary Stlraska of Stafford, Virginia, is a Democrat who worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008. She describes herself, however, as a “Reagan Democrat,” concerned about fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget. She says she has read the Affordable Care Act and finds it “incomprehensible.” Physicians, she says, have told her that that law, as it stands, will make their jobs more difficult; they tell her they’ll have less time to spend with patients. Stlraska thinks the Affordable Care Act is “not well done; it needs to be reconstructed.”

A medical doctor practicing for over four decades, Harvey Fernbach of Greenbelt, Maryland, believes “all Americans should have health care” and that “single-payer health care is the cheapest way to save lives.” The Affordable Care Act, he says, “improves freedom”: people can leave their jobs, for instance, free from trepidation about losing medical coverage. To see someone neglect treatment because he or she lacks health care is, Fernbach says, to witness a “human tragedy.”

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Elizabeth Ryan of Arlington, Virginia, says “people should have the right to decide on their own health insurance.” She believes the Affordable Care Act is “a step toward socialism.”

David Bereit is the national director of 40 Days For Life, a Christian pro-life organization. He opposes the Affordable Care Act because of its “abortion mandate.” Taxpayers, Bereit says, are being “wrongly forced to subsidize abortions.”

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Robyn Martin is from Waldorf, Maryland. Her son Jax was born with a congenital heart defect. Martin says Jax’s first day in the NICU cost $150,000. She supports the Affordable Care Act. “If we had a lifetime insurance limit,” she says, “we’d have to make decisions about Jax’s care based on money, not his health.” She came to the Supreme Court because she “is worried about taking care of my son.”

Government should not mandate the purchase of health care, says Oliver Darcy of Alexandria, Virginia: “People can make their own decisions.” Darcy describes himself as a “libertarian-conservative”; he is pro-life, but “doesn’t like government intruding into people’s business.”

Kathy Whalen lives in Washington, D.C. “This isn’t a perfect bill,” she says of the Affordable Care Act, “but it’s a huge step forward.” Without addressing the issue of rising medical costs, she believes, health care will be an ever-larger “drain on the economy.”

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