[ed. How nice. Three days after the election. You'd think they could have waited at least a week. More here.]
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act, potentially imperiling President Obama’s signature legislative achievement two years after it survived a different Supreme Court challenge by a single vote.
The case concerns tax subsidies that currently help millions of people afford health insurance under the law. According to the challengers, those subsidies are being provided unlawfully in three dozen states that have decided not to run the marketplaces, known as exchanges, for insurance coverage.
If the challengers are right, people receiving subsidies in those states would become ineligible for them, destabilizing and perhaps dooming the law.
The Obama administration said it would mount a vigorous defense in the Supreme Court.
“This lawsuit reflects just another partisan attempt to undermine the Affordable Care Act and to strip millions of American families of tax credits that Congress intended for them to have,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. “We are confident that the financial help afforded millions of Americans was the intent of the law and it is working as Congress designed.”
Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general, said he welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case. The administration, he said, “cannot ignore the plain language in a statute and rewrite laws with which they disagree.” He added, “This Supreme Court review will provide Oklahoma and the 35 other states that did not establish state-based exchanges with immediate and conclusive clarity as to their rights and obligations under the A.C.A. so that the states may make appropriate health care policy decisions.”
The case is likely to be argued in February or March, and a decision will probably arrive in June, three years after the court ruled that Congress had acted constitutionally in enacting the law.
In a supporting brief urging the court to hear the case, several Republican lawmakers said the law as currently enforced would result in “tens of billions of dollars of unlawful spending in the next year, and hundreds of billions over the next decade.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, said the court’s move was a surprise. “It’s troubling that they would even consider this,” she said. “The language is very clear. The intent of Congress is very clear.”
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act, potentially imperiling President Obama’s signature legislative achievement two years after it survived a different Supreme Court challenge by a single vote.The case concerns tax subsidies that currently help millions of people afford health insurance under the law. According to the challengers, those subsidies are being provided unlawfully in three dozen states that have decided not to run the marketplaces, known as exchanges, for insurance coverage.
If the challengers are right, people receiving subsidies in those states would become ineligible for them, destabilizing and perhaps dooming the law.
The Obama administration said it would mount a vigorous defense in the Supreme Court.
“This lawsuit reflects just another partisan attempt to undermine the Affordable Care Act and to strip millions of American families of tax credits that Congress intended for them to have,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. “We are confident that the financial help afforded millions of Americans was the intent of the law and it is working as Congress designed.”
Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general, said he welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case. The administration, he said, “cannot ignore the plain language in a statute and rewrite laws with which they disagree.” He added, “This Supreme Court review will provide Oklahoma and the 35 other states that did not establish state-based exchanges with immediate and conclusive clarity as to their rights and obligations under the A.C.A. so that the states may make appropriate health care policy decisions.”
The case is likely to be argued in February or March, and a decision will probably arrive in June, three years after the court ruled that Congress had acted constitutionally in enacting the law.
In a supporting brief urging the court to hear the case, several Republican lawmakers said the law as currently enforced would result in “tens of billions of dollars of unlawful spending in the next year, and hundreds of billions over the next decade.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, said the court’s move was a surprise. “It’s troubling that they would even consider this,” she said. “The language is very clear. The intent of Congress is very clear.”
by Adam Liptak, NY Times | Read more:
