NEW YORK TIMES: Millions of low- and moderate-income people who signed up for health insurance with the help of federal tax-credit subsidies could find themselves without coverage or facing big premium bills if a destructive decision handed down by a federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday is not reversed. It would be a crippling blow to the ability of the Affordable Care Act to reduce the ranks of the uninsured with grievous consequences for vulnerable customers…
Under the decision of a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, people living in 36 states, mostly led by Republican governors or legislatures, would be in jeopardy because their states refused to set up “exchanges” or electronic marketplaces on which individuals can shop for insurance plans and apply for subsidies based on their incomes…
Two Republican-appointed judges on the panel, taking an incredibly narrow and blinkered view, concluded that the language in the law allows the Internal Revenue Service to provide tax-credit subsidies only on exchanges established by the states. They decided that the statute’s wording does not allow subsidies on federally created exchanges — even though those exchanges carry out exactly the same purpose and, in effect, act on behalf of the states. The administration had expected most states to create their own exchanges, but most handed that task to the federal government… (more)
EDITOR: On the same day, a federal appeals court panel in Richmond, Va., ruled the opposite way. The above decision is likelyi to be reversed upon appeal to the full district court.
