Experts Argue Obamacare Mistake Could Doom Key Part Of Law

Yahoo! News/The Ticket ^ | July 19, 2012 | Liz Goodwin

[Southnsoul]

States could dodge a key part of the health care reform law because of a little-noticed mistake in the lengthy bill, according to a white paper by conservative health care experts Michael Cannon and Jonathan Adler.

A missing word in the law's definition of a health insurance exchange could prevent the federal government from doling out crucial subsidies to aid middle class and lower-income people in buying insurance in states that refuse to set up their own exchanges. (Only 14 states are close to setting up exchanges so far. The federal government will set up back-up exchanges in states that don't have their own by 2014.) If Cannon and Adler are right, the federal government would also not be able to fine large employers in states without exchanges if their lack of coverage leads employees to buy insurance in a federal exchange.

[PGR88]

That’s what happens when no one reads a bill.

[Dr. Pritchett]

Well, I guess we had to read it to find out what was in it!

[ilovesarah2012]

What exactly is an “exchange” and how does it work?

[TomGuy]

Pelosi was so smart by half to pass the bill without reading it.

[Doogle]

...it’s the carbon credits of health care

[Kickass Conservative]

>”it’s the carbon credits of health care”<

Well, we are a Carbon Based Lifeforms. (Thanks Spock)

Soylent Green, it's Kingsford!

[Kickass Conservative]

>”it’s the carbon credits of health care”<

Well, we are Carbon Based Lifeforms. (Thanks Spock)

Soylent Green, it’s Kingsford!

(edited for my protection)

[ilovesarah2012]

This made me LOL -

“A call center to assure good customer service”

http://healthinsurance.about.com/od/reform/a/health_exchanges.htm

Sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me.

[deweyfrank]

Does anyone know what the 14 States are?

[Doogle]

well they can’t say American doctors will be replace by Mexican mechanics can they?...THINK TSA in white coats

[TonyInOhio]

It was intentional: soon the “public option” will be the ONLY option, just as designed.

[clearcarbon]

The whole forest is diseased and they focus on a single tree?

[Petrosius]

The law defines a health insurance exchange as a "governmental agency or nonprofit entity that is established by a state" in one section of the law, and then says later that individuals who participate in exchanges under that definition are eligible for subsidies. Because the law only says a "state" and not "a state or the federal government," Cannon and Adler argue that the federal government cannot legally dole out subsidies or tax breaks to people who buy insurance from federal exchanges.

The Obama administration has said that the intention of the law is clear, and that they fully plan on handing out subsidies when they set up federal exchanges in states that do not set up their own.

We don't need no stinkin' law.

[DJtex]

After the shock of betrayal by Chief Justice Roberts on the Individual Mandate, I finally decided that he fully expects a Republican Congress to repeal the Individual Mandate legislatively. As a tax, it could be reversed by the Senate with 51 votes in Reconciliation with the House. That’s the same way the entire act was passed in the first place.

I also believe that at least a dozen cases will come before the Court over Obamacare and that eventually the 5-4 decision upholding the law will become a 4-5 minority with the entire law thrown out by the Court.

That’s Roberts’ fallback if Congress does not act AS IT SHOULD.