Posted on 03/03/2015 5:50:39 AM PST by Citizen Zed
With Supreme Court arguments in the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act just days away, a sense of impending crisis has hit state officials and patient advocates in many parts of the country. Many worry they have no good options.
If the justices rule in favor of the challenge, it would wipe out insurance subsidies for millions of consumers in nearly three dozen states that use the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace established through the health law.
“The recurrent nightmare for us is ... ‘What do we do?’ ” Dr. William J. Hazel, Virginia’s health secretary, said at a recent conference in Washington. “We’re starting from zero. And all of those states like us will probably start at zero.”
The marketplaces — now in their second year — allow Americans who don’t get health benefits at work to shop online among plans that must all offer basic benefits and cannot turn away customers, even if they are sick.
Americans making less than four times the federal poverty level — or about $94,000 for a family of four — qualify for subsidies to offset the cost of their premiums.
The law’s challengers argue that a strict reading of the statute makes those subsidies available only in states that established their own marketplaces, rather than having the federal government operate the marketplace for them. The Obama administration, the law’s congressional architects and many outside legal experts disagree.
The justices are likely to decide the case in late spring. If they rule against the administration, nearly 90 percent of health plan enrollees in 34 federal marketplace states — an estimated 7 million people — would lose aid.
(Excerpt) Read more at havasunews.com ...
Join the club of those who lost their insurance to Obamacare.
It's working out exactly like Obama planned it.
While the supreme court should NOT be influenced by such things, and while they SHOULD rule based ONLY on whether the law is Constitutional, I think a majority of them consider the plight of "millions of consumers" in to account when take their decision.
This guy talks like obamacare is the only medical system the US has ever had.
We had a system before this clusterf$#k, change it back.
Don’t worry, the current Supreme Court will do whatever is worse for Americans. You can’t say the’re not consistent.
“The recurrent nightmare for us is ... ‘What do we do’”?
Liberty?
I’m of the opinion that the President and his 2012 election staff were absolutely expecting the Supreme Court to toss Obamacare before the election and they’d use that as the one-and-only topic for the entire election. I think they were in a state of shock once Roberts reset the system. They had to continue on and pretend it works as it is.....waiting for this day when there’s a car with an engine, but no transmission.
If you were looking for maximum frustration at the state-level....this is it. Once you chill out the subsidy...people throughout your community and state will get testy real quick. New taxes to repair this? You’d have to invent a 19-percent VAT sales tax like they have in Germany to have any hope of continuing on this whole game.
I'm sure a lot of the people impacted lost their insurance the first time around due to Obamacare, and now may lose it again.
Which is why I think our politicized supreme court will most likely find in Obama’s favor.
I hope they don’t.
As painful as it will be, I think it will be better to take the hit now so we cab start fixing the damage he has done.
It was called 'being uninsured' and if the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare then a lot of people will go back to that old system.
Liberty?
What’s that?
“Don’t worry, the current Supreme Court will do whatever is worse for Americans. You can’t say the’re not consistent.”
Harry Reid will make a phone call to John Roberts and remind him of “The Picture”. John will hang up the phone and quickly re-write the law to say what the Dem’s “meant to say”. Hide and watch.....
Since my wife is disabled they dumped her on Medicare... what a eff’d up mess that is. Shes type 1 and they refuse to pay for supplies for one of her medical devices. My monthly costs went from 50 a month to 700..
Eff Obamacare.
“Americans making less than four times the federal poverty level — or about $94,000 for a family of four — qualify for subsidies to offset the cost of their premiums.”
Just the camel’s nose under the tent for mandatory, commie style, universal, one-payer, government run, cradle to grave health care. Costs would skyrocket, quality would deteriorate, there would be long waits for treatment, and every visit to a facility would be like dealing with a department of motor vehicles with all the bureaucratic red tape.
Let it crash and burn and return to a free enterprise system, with charity hospitals and clinics for the indigent.
The bigger "if" is insurance companies offering the new policies again. And people being able to afford them if they do.
So you like the ACA?
Actually, SCOTUS has a way to deal with this problem while tossing the whole mess back to Congress and the President. It could rule in favor of the plaintiffs, enjoin further enrollments in the affected states, and allow the program to continue for the current enrollees for a finite time, like 6 months, pending Congressional action.
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