Nearly 138,000 people in Louisiana will continue to receive federal subsidies that help pay for their health insurance.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Thursday a challenge to the federal health law that could have jettisoned tax credits used by Louisianians to buy insurance coverage.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates premiums could have soared by an average of 347 percent in Louisiana – if the court had decided tax credits couldn’t be paid to people in states that use the federal government’s insurance marketplace, rather than creating their own.

Louisiana is one of 34 states that use the federal marketplace.

Low- and middle-income residents in the state get an average tax credit of $323 per month to help cover their insurance costs, according to Kaiser.