Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Dueling court rulings question legality (or illegality) of Obamacare subsidies

"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it..."
Uh huh...they also passed it without reading a damn word in it! Oops...
LASlimes: President Obama's healthcare law was dealt a blow Tuesday as a federal appeals court panel ruled that government subsidies should be cut off for the majority of low- and middle-income residents currently receiving help with their insurance premiums under the program.

However, hours later, a different federal appeals panel in Virginia upheld the subsidies, creating conflicting rulings on a central component of the Affordable Care Act.

Defenders of the healthcare law called the initial ruling a temporary setback and predicted that it will be reversed by the full U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where Democratic appointees now outnumber Republicans. Obama administration officials confirmed Tuesday that they plan to appeal.

In a 2-1 vote, a panel of judges on the D.C. appeals court rejected the administration's argument that the problem in the case was triggered by imprecise language in the complex Affordable Care Act and that Congress had always intended to offer the subsidies nationwide to low- and middle-income people who bought insurance through one of the state or federal health exchanges created under the law.

But as written, the law states that subsidies should be paid to those who purchase insurance through an "exchange established by the state." That would seem to leave out the 36 states in which the exchanges are operated by the federal government.
Rush proclaimed, 'if it holds,' this is a big deal and a huge day for the rule of law, because this ruling could cripple the entirety of the Act...



El Rushbo also called this on July 3, 2012, with a little assist from some CATO research: 'If the subsidies were killed, both the individual and employer mandates were also dead...'



Of course, like everything else with Obama, the Obama administration scoffed at the court ruling, assuring that subsidies will keep flowing despite it...
TRS: Of course they will. When does this administration care about court rulings anyway? They’ve been ruled in contempt before because they disobeyed a court ruling.

The interesting thing here will be if SCOTUS decides not to take the case. What will they say then?
Related links: DUELING RULINGS: COURTS SPLIT ON HEALTH LAW CLASH
Court Rules That Subsidies in Obamacare's Federal Exchange are Illegal, Dealing Huge Legal Blow to Health Law
CRUZ ISSUES STATEMENT – Halbig ruling a huge setback to Obamacare
Jonathan Turley: The DC circuit is right, there is no ambiguity about Obamacare subsidies