Seats in high demand for SCOTUS health care arguments

John Aaron, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – It’s now been exactly two years since President Obama signed the national healthcare overhaul bill into law.

The ongoing legal battles escalate to the Supreme Court next week – and seeing it in person may make landing Springsteen tickets look like a cake walk.

Oral arguments, which run from Monday to Wednesday, are promising to be even more difficult to see in person than the historic Bush v. Gore election showdown.

Only 60 tickets will be made available to the public each day – and that’s up from the usual 50.

Because of the event, people like John Winslow are in high demand, as people and companies try to nab a seat. Winslow is the director of linestanding.com, which, as the name suggests, offers the services of employees who stand in line for you.

According to Reuters, that line began forming at 9 a.m. – and the first two people to show up said they were being paid to get the tickets for others.

Winslow says he is deploying “over two dozen” people to wait in line. At a rate of $36 per hour, total charges could come out to thousands of dollars per ticket, with no guarantees of a seat.

Winslow says clients of his Bethesda company include law firms, as well as associations and insurance companies connected to the healthcare field.

The arguments are scheduled to last a total of six hours spread over the three-day span.

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(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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