The scene: From protesters to belly dancers

Protesters, cowbells, drums, megaphones and even belly dancers in support of a single-payer system surrounded the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, the day the high court declared the controversial 2010 health reform law constitutional.

Karen Higgins, co-president of National Nurses United and an intensive-care unit nurse at Boston Medical Center, left Boston at 5:30 a.m. to stand outside the court before the opinion was announced. She will return to Boston in time for a 7 a.m. shift on Friday. Representing more than 170,000 U.S. nurses, National Nurses United advocates for Medicare to be expanded.

“There are millions of people out there that do not have insurance,” Higgins said. “If they had Medicare, they could actually go to a doctor, they could get treated, they could get their medications. But because they don't, we end up seeing them in the intensive-care unit because they couldn't get treated in the first place,” she said, adding that regardless of the court's decision, the national conversation needs to focus on healthcare, not health insurance.

Moments after the ruling was announced, Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.)—who this year introduced legislation aimed at fixing the Medicare physician payment system—commented on the decision in the Capitol. Schwartz beamed as she spoke about what the ruling means for the country.

“It's such an important win for the American people,” she said. “It is just huge. And of course for the conservative court, for Justice Roberts to have written this opinion and to have upheld this law, it really—as we know, will enable Americans to have access to affordable health coverage.”

Schwartz said she doesn't think the court's opinion that the individual mandate is a tax will be a problem for the Obama administration.

“We knew that it was a penalty—that people without health insurance would pay, however you call that,” she said. “The bottom line for the American people is that all of those protections for people with pre-existing conditions, for small groups, for people who have never been able to have continuous health coverage, it will take us awhile to implement all of this, but it's such a positive for the American people,” she added.

She also had a message for her GOP colleagues, who vowed again this week to repeal the law if the high court upheld it.

“From my point of view, we move ahead to make sure this law works for the American people,” she said. “That's always been my goal, that's what all of our goal should be, and I would call upon the Republicans to work with us to make this work and to not keep fighting what in fact has been affirmed by a conservative justice.”