Next month the Supreme Court is expected to decide the case, which goes to the heart of Obamacare. Plaintiffs argue that federal health insurance subsidies should be available only to residents of Washington D.C. and the 16 states that established their own health insurance exchanges and who purchased their health insurance through those exchanges; the 13 million or so people who purchased health insurance through the federal exchange are ineligible for such subsidies.
Without subsidies, it’s likely that most of them will no longer be able to afford their insurance.
As has been discussed here before, the subsidy issue has presented unwelcome surprises for many tax filers due to the fact that recipients get them as a result of their estimate of anticipated earnings for the following year - and if their income exceeds what they anticipated, the IRS demands that they repay all or a portion of those subsidies come April 15. That little fly in the ointment had a huge impact upon many, last month, when they discovered that they had a tax liability, not a refund. But leaving that aside, the current thinking is that if SCOTUS finds for the plaintiff in this case, some observers believe that it spells trouble not for the Democratics who rammed Obamacare through, but for Republicans. Because Republicans haven't put together a plan for ensuring that those folks can keep their subsidies.
So that’s the theory: millions will suddenly be uninsured, and will blame Republicans. As Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, put it recently, “I don’t think they will [win the case]. If they do, that’s a problem that the Republicans have.”
Maybe Hairy and his pals should have read the bill before they passed it. Republicans didn't have anything to do with it, and the issue before SCOTUS is whether or not the Obama administration violated its own law. The Democratics can try to shift blame - should King prevail - to Republicans, but it's not going to fly:
In testimony before Congress and elsewhere, Sylvia Burwell, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (and the defendant in the case), said that the Administration has no contingency plan for an adverse ruling in the Supreme Court.
Obama and his fellow Democratics own this hot mess, and it's not the job of Republicans to come up with patches to fix things if the Supremes side with King on this case.
