A clearly divided Supreme Court on Wednesday put Obamacare under the microscope once again, with the tentative prognosis looking rather positive for the president’s signature health care law.
During an unusually long oral argument, several members of the court, including potential swing Justice Anthony Kennedy, warned of a “death spiral” that might occur from a ruling that cuts off health insurance subsidies in 34 states.
“You’d have these disastrous consequences,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared.
Immediately at stake are the tax credit subsidies that have helped make health insurance affordable for millions of residents in dozens of states.
At issue is the legality of the subsidies for an estimated 7.5 million subscribers in the 34 states that chose not to run their own health insurance exchanges, leaving it to the federal government. Critics argue the law as written only permits the subsidies to go to people who use state-run exchanges. The administration says the subsidies were intended to be available in all states.
Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer posed questions or made statements that suggested sympathy for the Obama administration’s position. Pointedly, Kennedy as well identified what he termed a “serious problem” with the argument made by the law’s opponents.
Keeping his powder dry, Chief Justice John Roberts was uncharacteristically quiet during much of the 85-minute argument.
Conservative justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito were most forceful in opposing the administration, with Scalia in particular insisting that the plain text of the law must be read in black-and-white regardless of the consequences.
“It may not be the statute they intended,” Scalia said. “But it may be the statute they wrote.”
Once considered an esoteric long-shot, the case called King v. Burwell could shake the financial foundation of perhaps President Barack Obama’s most notable achievement.