U.S. Supreme Court to hear new challenge to Obamacare following the ruling against the Affordable Care Act that could leave millions without insurance.
The Obama Administration will have to defend the Affordable Care Act before the U.S. Supreme Court one more time. On Friday, the Justices agreed to hear a case that will determine the legality of a key element of the law: the administration's system for distributing health insurance subsidies. The new case poses as great a threat to Obamacare as the 2012 legal challenge to the law's requirement that nearly all Americans have health insurance, according to the Associated Press.
he challengers argue, citing a provision of the law known as Obamacare, that those subsidies that have helped millions of people obtain health coverage may only be offered in states that have decided to run their own exchanges, or healthcare marketplaces, but not in states (36 out of the 50) in which the federal government has stepped in to run them, according to the AP.
"The plain language of the law makes it clear that subsidies are only to be provided for the purchase of health coverage through exchanges setup by the states," Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., said in a statement. "Nevertheless, the Obama administration and others are asking the courts to disregard the letter of the law and instead rule based on bureaucratic rewrites and revisions."
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the congressional intent behind the law is for eligible customers regardless of where they live to receive assistance from the government to subsidize the purchase of health care. He promised a vigorous defense before the high court.
"The ACA is working. These lawsuits won't stand in the way of the Affordable Care Act and the millions of Americans who can now afford health insurance because of it," he said in a statement, calling the lawsuit "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."
In his first press conference after Tuesday's midterm elections, in which Republicans took a majority in both houses of Congress for the first time since 2006, Boehner promised that the GOP will continue its attacks on the health care law.
"Obamacare is hurting our economy, its hurting middle-class workers, and it's hurting the ability to create more jobs," the Republican leader said.
A previous challenge to the law in 2012 failed when the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld the so-called "individual mandate" that required most Americans to buy health insurance before 2014 or face a fine.
