|
 In a one-sentence order, the court said it would take up a case
brought by conservative challengers of the law, the most sweeping
overhaul of U.S. healthcare in decades and President Barack Obama's
signature domestic policy accomplishment.
The Supreme Court will issue a ruling by the end of June in the
case, in which the plaintiffs have appealed a July ruling by the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the subsidies.
At issue is whether the subsidies - a vital component of Obama's
2010 Affordable Care Act, known widely as Obamacare - should be
available in all 50 states, or only in some states.
Obamacare set up health insurance exchanges and a system of
subsidies to help people afford insurance premiums. The plaintiffs
say the language of the law restricts subsidy availability to states
that run their own insurance exchanges.
The legal question rests on a phrase in the law that authorizes
subsidies for coverage purchased via an "exchange established by the
state." The battle is over whether that phrase means subsidies are
not available through the federally-run exchange.
If the court found the plaintiff's interpretation to be correct, the
subsidies would not be available in 36 states that lack their own
health insurance exchanges. In those states, the federal government
runs the exchanges.
The Obama administration remains confident that Congress wanted the
subsidies to be available nationwide, said White House spokesman
Josh Earnest in a statement.
"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," he said
shortly after the Supreme Court took the case.
The share prices of major hospital chains HCA Holdings Inc <HCA.N>,
Community Health Systems Inc <CYH.N> and Tenet Healthcare Corp <THC.N>
closed down more than 4 percent, while shares of health insurers
UnitedHealth Group <UNH.N>, Aetna Inc <AET.N> and WellPoint Inc <WLP.N>
dropped nearly 3 percent.
Five million people could be affected, analysts have estimated, if
the administration loses the legal fight and subsidies disappear
from the federal marketplaces. In 2014, 8 million consumers signed
up for healthcare via the exchanges.
LIBERTARIAN GROUP BACKS CASE
The plaintiffs in the legal challenge are business owners and
individuals who object to the law. The court's decision to hear the
case was welcomed by Sam Kazman, general counsel of the Competitive
Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank that is funding the
litigation.
[to top of second column] |
"The need for a quick and final resolution of this question is
undeniable," Kazman said in a statement.
David Cutler, a professor of applied economics at Harvard
University, said on Friday that if the court throws out the
subsidies, “the premiums would skyrocket and the thing would just
die." He was speaking at an event at The Forum at Harvard School of
Public Health in collaboration with Reuters.
The case will give the Supreme Court a second shot at reviewing
Obamacare. In June 2012, the nine justices upheld by a 5-4 vote the
constitutionality of Obamacare's core feature that requires people
to get health insurance.
The court also ruled that the states are not required to sign on to
the expansion of the Medicaid assistance program for people on low
incomes that the law envisioned as mandatory.
The high court’s decision to hear the subsidies availability case is
somewhat surprising since there is no split among federal appeals
courts on the issue.
In July, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit struck down the subsidies, but the
court later threw out that ruling and decided to rehear the case.
Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for Dec. 17.
The case before the Supreme Court, expected to be argued in early
March, is King v. Burwell, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-114.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley. Additional reporting by Jonathan
Stempel in New, David Morgan in Boston and Caroline Humer in New
York.; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kevin Drawbaugh, Andre Grenon,
Alden Bentley and Ken Wills)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
