This is the weekly column written by Blavity:Politics Senior Editor Kandist Mallett.

Health is something that is meant to be taken for granted by the youth. My niece, Alika, has never had that privilege. When she was two years old, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. For the last nine years, hospital rooms have been her second home. Several bouts of chemo, brain surgeries, and constant rehab mean she’s gone through more than anyone her age should ever have to go through.  

It is because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that my niece was able to get all of the procedures she needed without her family going into medical debt. And while the Affordable Care Act is nowhere close to where we need it to be when it comes to ensuring we have the necessary medical insurance, it has provided a safety blanket for millions of Americans who would be left uninsured if the government didn’t take steps to intervene.

Since former President Barack Obama signed ACA into law, Republicans have been determined to destroy what they branded as "Obamacare." In Texas vs. The United States, a coalition of red states filed a suit to eradicate ACA in its entirety, and in December, A Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans ruled that the individual mandate in ACA was unconstitutional. This caused the Democratic House of Representatives and Blue states to ask for the Supreme Court to hear the case now in an effort to prevent what is a faulty lawsuit that could actually succeed in destroying ACA and future health policies.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied a motion, giving Trump and Republicans a huge win and an edge for the 2020 election. Despite an overwhelming amount of Republicans saying they disapprove of the ACA when asked about it in totality, Republican voters seem to support individual provisions within the Act. When asked if they support gradually closing “doughnut holes” so those on Medicare wouldn’t have to pay full price for medication, 80% of Republicans said they felt favorable of the law, and 68% said they support the idea of providing health care to those whose jobs do not help them purchase it. 

Poor Republicans are known to vote against their own interests, but after almost ten years of ACA, Americans have gotten used to those provisions. Being anti-Obamacare sounds good until you realize you can’t afford health care on your own. Do Republicans up for re-election want to run against allowing young adults to stay on their parents' plan until they turn 26? It’s because of this that Republicans would rather wait until after the election to publicly go to war against the Affordable Care Act. 

The stalled court decision also leaves an opportunity for the Supreme Court to lean more on the conservative side. Too much is being left up to chance with two liberal justices in their 80s and a possibility that Trump could win the presidential election, giving him the power to pick judges who would rule in favor of ending ACA. 

When I think of what the end of ACA could mean for people like my niece, who will always be designated with a pre-existing condition, it really makes the need for a safety blanket that protects all Americans even more necessary. More than 20 million Americans were able to get health care because of ACA, and for that reason, it’s worth protecting. But ACA still leaves millions of people uninsured, either because they are undocumented, they're from a state that chose not to extend Medicaid, they are still unable to afford health care even with ACA or they just chose to opt out of coverage (which again is most likely linked to affordability). But ACA should not be where the fight for full access to health care ends. 

Though Medicare-for-All would also face its own legal battles, that shouldn’t be a deterrent for pushing our government for it. 

There are lots of things in this world one can make a profit off of, but someone else's health should not be one of them.