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Supreme Court upholds Obamacare subsidies

25 June 2015 20:22 (UTC +04:00)

Chief Justice John Roberts, who was the object of immense conservative blowback after he joined the court’s liberals three years ago to uphold the law’s individual mandate, again wrote the majority opinion in support of the Obama administration position. He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who expressed deep reservations when the case was argued about whether striking down the subsidies would coerce states into establishing their own exchanges, and the court’s four liberal justices.

The law’s challengers argued that four words in the statute — “established by the state” — meant that only people who bought insurance from exchanges in the handful of states that set up their own marketplaces would be eligible for tax credits and other government assistance. The government countered that the clear intent of the law was to provide the subsidies for all lower-income Americans who sought coverage.

The court concluded that while the Affordable Care Act was “inartful” and “does not reflect the type of care and deliberation that one might expect of such significant legislation,” Congress still did not mean to exclude millions of people from tax credits. Roberts wrote that “an exchange established by the state” refers to both federal and state exchanges, because the law directs the secretary of Health and Human Services to establish “such exchange” if a state does not do so.

“In every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done,” the Court ruled. “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.”

Justice Antonin Scalia read much of his fiery dissent from the bench, seated next to Roberts. The chief justice, who looked grave for most of the morning, cracked a smile when Scalia said, testily, “We should really start calling this law SCOTUScare.” The dissenting justice argued that the Court was attempting to rescue the law by ignoring the statute’s messy contradictions that plaintiffs had argued would make millions of people ineligible for subsidies. Scalia argued that three years ago, the majority used “interpretative somersaults” to save the health care law’s individual mandate, and now it was doing the same thing to save the subsidies.

“The cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites,” Scalia said.