Rulings on Health Law Are Far From Last Word
An appellate court ruling issued Tuesday would be very bad news for the Affordable Care Act if it became the law of the land. But it’s still a long way from a settled issue, as a second appellate decision, issued a few hours later, highlighted.
In the first ruling, Halbig v. Burwell, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found that federal dollars used to make health insurance more affordable for middle-income Americans can be used only in the handful of states that created their own insurance marketplaces. The subsidies, which come in the form of tax credits, could not be used in the 36 states that use the federal insurance exchange, it said. Then the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, another federal court overseeing a different region of the country, found the exact opposite in King v. Burwell, ruling that the tax credits could be offered in every state of the country.
The disagreement, called a circuit split, means that we are still a long way from any possible concrete actions. The cases will be appealed further, either for reconsideration by the appeals courts that issued the ruling, or go to the Supreme Court. The Obama administration will not reconsider its regulations, which interpreted the law to say that tax credits could be offered in every state, until the case is final. Because of the time involved, the approximately 5 million people in those states who have already signed up for insurance using the subsidies will almost certainly continue to receive them this year, although it is theoretically possible that they could be pulled back by the courts.