Affordable Care Act hit by conflicting rulings, but subsidies to continue
WASHINGTON (WTVD) -- President Obama's healthcare law finds itself at the center of another huge legal battle. Two federal appeals courts issued contradictory rulings on a key financing issue.
The legal fight centers on federal subsidies. If you were able to buy federally subsidized health insurance with the Affordable Care Act, you know how crucial those subsidies are. For many, they're the difference between having health care and not.
However, for thousands of low and middle income people, the plans being offered on healthcare.gov were unaffordable until they received a subsidy, federal aid to help pay the premium.
Tuesday morning's ruling from the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals puts those subsidies in jeopardy. The court ruled health plans bought on the federal health exchange were not eligible for subsidies.
The decision could affect North Carolina and 35 other states whose Republican legislatures refused to allow for state-run exchanges, which are eligible for subsidies.
Nicole Dozier, a healthcare advocate with the N.C. Justice Center, says the ruling sent her into a panic about the prospect of thousands losing their health insurance. She spent much of last year educating uninsured North Carolinians about the health care law.
Dozier remembered the newly-unemployed mom from Rockingham County who was suddenly uninsured with a sick husband and newborn baby. The federal subsidy was a blessing.
"She's someone who needed her subsidy, was overjoyed about having that and being able to take care of herself, go to preventative visits and not have to go to the emergency room for non-urgent care," Dozier explained.
Opponents of the president's health care law saw the D.C. court's decision as more evidence of the ACA's major flaws.
"This morning's ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court is just the latest blow to the legality and implementation of a law that was doomed to fail from the very beginning", said Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers in a statement.
But only hours later, another federal appeals court ruled the subsidies were legal. The contradictory ruling would allow policy holders in all 50 states to purchase subsidized coverage.
The contradictory rulings means there is a lengthy legal fight ahead. Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state's largest insurer, says nothing will change for its customers, until the dust settles.
It's a sentiment echoed at the White House which said the federal aid will continue until the cases can be sorted out.
