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The Daily Signal
HHS Chief:
Congress Must Fix Obamacare If Supreme Court Unravels Law
Natalie Johnson
June 10, 2015
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wednesday if
the Supreme Court unravels federal subsidies in the Affordable Care Act
it will be up to Congress and the states to come up with a new plan.
Burwell said the Obama administration would do “everything” it can to
communicate with states should the court decide against the government
in the King v. Burwell case.
The Supreme Court will decide King v. Burwell later this month,
weighing whether enrollees in the health care program may purchase
subsidies through the federal exchange—or just those using state-run
exchanges.
“The critical decisions will sit with the Congress and states and
governors to determine if those [federal] subsidies are available,”
Burwell told the House Ways and Means Committee in a contentious
hearing.
The plaintiffs in the case argue the Affordable Care Act’s current
wording only allows the purchase of federal subsidies in state
exchanges.
“We believe we are implementing the law as it was written, as it was
intended,” Burwell said.
Dan Holler, the communications director for Heritage Action, the
lobbying arm of The Heritage Foundation, refuted Burwell’s assertion,
pointing to Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s acknowledgment that
the goal of state exchanges was to “coerce states.”
“The Obama administration routinely ignores the law as drafted and
intended,” Holler said.
If the Supreme Court rules against the government, Burwell said
President Obama would sign alternative legislation solely if it
improves “affordability, quality and access.”
House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said regardless
of what the Supreme Court decides it is clear the president’s health
care law is “busted” and that “no quick fix can change this fact.”
Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., sternly fired back.
“What’s busted is not ACA, but your attacks on it,” he said. “Endless
attacks and never coming up with a single comprehensive alternative all
these years. So you are armchair critics while millions have insurance
who never had it before.”
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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