This Would Suck for Us

[SamIam]

After all we did to get people to enrolled this would suck for us if this goes through.

Obamacare faces another court threat — and this one could be fatal - Health Exchange - MarketWatch

 

[AllenChicago]

This subsidy lawsuit is rearing its head again? I thought it was struck down by a lower court in 2013. Must be some determined and well-financed backers behind it.

 

[GreenSky]

Yeah, that would suck. Would really be a shame if the taxpayers wouldn't have the privilege of paying for everyone else's insurance plan.

Rick

 

[somarco]

Halbig never really died. Just another example of Obama and Sebelius rewriting the law after the fact.

Hobby Lobby isn't today's most important case: Column

Obamacare authorizes the IRS to provide health-insurance subsidies (nominally, tax credits) to consumers who purchase health insurance "through an Exchange established by the State." That's not a drafting error. The subsidy-eligibility rules employ that language a total of nine times, without deviation. The rest of the statue is fully compatible with this language.

The statute is therefore clear and unambiguous: the IRS may issue subsidies in the 14 states that established an exchange, but not in the 34 states that left the job of establishing and operating their state's exchange to the federal government. Congress' purpose is likewise clear. It wanted states to operate the exchanges, so it conditioned subsidies on state cooperation. Medicaid and countless other federal programs do the same.

The IRS's philosopher-kings have decided to issue subsidies in those 34 states anyway.

 

[RayNY]

For reference, they contest that due to the specifics of the wording under the law, the exchange "must be established by the state" in order to qualify for subsidies, so the FFM exchanges can't give subsidies.

There's two ways this turns out:
Again, they decide that this is stupid nitpicking and ignore it (what justification they use is up for discussion, I vote "choosing the government to establish the exchange" is a state "establishing an exchange". It's not like state employees would do it anyway, it would be outsourced, probably to the same company that did the gov't portal in the first place...)

They decide this is right, and states have to "establish their own exchange". Each state goes out and registers an exchange website, directs it back to healthcare.gov, and everything continues as normal. Alternatively they change the wording of that line, we know how much they like changing laws.

There is no way this results in subsidies being lost. Guarantee that.