Obamacare Withstands Legal Challenge

[babylonsister]

http://wonkwire.rollcall.com/2014/01/15/obamacare-withstands-legal-challenge/

Obamacare Withstands Legal Challenge

Posted at 5:58 p.m. on Jan. 15


Washington Post: “A federal judge in the District rejected a lawsuit Wednesday that would have gutted President Obama’s health-care law by preventing the government from giving out subsidies to people buying health insurance in dozens of states.”

Wall Street Journal: “Citing a disputed passage in the law’s text, {conservative legal groups} argue that the subsidies can only be given to people in states that set up their own exchanges. More than two-thirds of the states didn’t do so, relying instead on a federally run exchange.”

“If the judge had ruled for the challengers, the decision could have upended the law’s implementation by making health insurance unaffordable for many people living” in the 14 states that run their own exchanges.

Judge Paul Friedman: “The plain text of the statute, the statutory structure and the statutory purpose make clear that Congress intended to make premium tax credits available on both state-run and federally facilitated exchanges.”