One of the biggest Supreme Court cases of this term could wipe away the insurance subsidies that tens of thousands of Virginians now rely on under the Affordable Care Act.
Remember the last time the Supreme Court took up so called Obamacare? It surprised Court watchers by ruling the individual health insurance mandate is constitutional under Congress’ power to tax.
“Perhaps the celebration of a five to four ruling that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional might have been premature.”
That’s Northern Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly. He points out the Court also ruled the administration can’t force states like Virginia to expand Medicaid, so the commonwealth rejected expanding Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of residents. That split ruling left millions of low income people without insurance. The Court is now reviewing the constitutionality of the federal government giving tax credits to millions of middle class Americans so they can afford insurance, which isn’t sitting well with Connolly.
“The fact that they’re taking up these subsidies cannot be seen as a good sign. And they know that that’s a backdoor way of bringing down much of the program in the bill because without those subsidies people can’t afford health care. The whole purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to make it affordable.”
Northern Virginia Democrat Don Beyer is also bracing for the upcoming Supreme Court case.
“If all of sudden you eliminate all these millions of people from being able to get affordable care through the Affordable Care Act then you have to come back and find a way to fix it right away.”
It’s not just the law’s supporters who are worried. Republicans still despise the law, but now the party is wrestling with a problem. Here’s Virginia Republican Congressman Randy Forbes discussing the millions of Americans who may lose insurance because of the Burwell verse King case.
“Obviously, if someone didn’t have anything and they get something that is going to be better than what they had.”
Virginia Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith recognizes his party has to have a Plan B ready if the Court rules millions of people can’t get help paying for insurance.
“Well, I think it’s definitely important that doesn’t mean we’re replaced it with the exactly the same plan and likewise if we win this case that doesn’t mean that going forward is exactly the same thing that the administration envisioned.”
GOP leaders recognize voters may punish politicians of all stripes – including Republicans – if they lose insurance they were just given. Still, Griffith says his party needs to repeal the law, though now pressuring is increasing for them to find an alternative.
“This is not a popular program so I think that we’ll still repeal. Now, we better have something you know, you can’t just leave people swinging in the breeze but I think we can certainly repeal this plan.”
Republicans have floated ideas like allowing people to carry insurance across state lines and tort reform. Experts say those ideas are unlikely to put millions of uninsured people back on the rolls even if Republicans can muster the votes to pass those plans. While GOP leaders are scrambling to avoid that, Congressman Forbes says this is a problem for the White House, not Republicans.
“One of the big things that you’ll see is that if this administration does things that are not constitutional to do, that’s not for me to rewrite for them, but that’s what we’ve been telling them – they have constitutional problems, - and they ignore them in any area then they have consequences and impacts that come from that.”
Congressman Beyer agrees with Forbes on that point and little else.
“I’m sure we’re hoping that the administration has a good plan if the Supreme Court rules against.”
The Court hears the case Burwell verse King on March Fourth, but it won’t release its ruling for months – that gives both parties time to prepare for millions of Americans losing the insurance they just got.
