On Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals made a ruling on subsidies in the Affordable
Care Act. The reason this issue came to court is because in the section of the law that deals with providing subsidies to lower and middle income families uses the phrase "an Exchange established by the State".
The two to one decision
ruled that subsidies could only be granted to people buying insurance from a state marketplace and not from the federal marketplace. This means that millions of lower income Americans that purchased health insurance in states without state run exchanges will not be able to afford their insurance.
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| These are the states with state run exchanges |
However, that same day the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled unanimously in favor of keeping subsidies for federal run exchanges
. With two different rulings from courts on the same level means that this will most likely go to the Supreme Court for a final decision.
Another interesting layer to all of this is the political aspect. Two of the three judges in the D.C. court were appointed by Republican Presidents, while all three of the judges in the 4th Circuit were appointed by Democratic Presidents. Also, most of the states that don't have state run exchanges have Republican Governors as shown by the below map
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Things to Discuss:
How do you think Obamacare will be effected by these rulings?
How will public opinion on the ACA be influenced by the rulings, if at all?
Which court do you agree with more?
Are the courts being unbiased in their decisions, or are these rulings political?
How will Obama's popularity be effected by the rulings?
Do you think this issue will go to the Supreme Court?
These rulings will mean a whole new turn for Obamacare. Too many issues are arising and will either make or break the "Affordable Care Act." Less and less people will be supportive of Obamacare now because of these extremely complicated issues. The courts in this case are extremely biased. Republicans voted against the act and Democrats voted for it. Politics continues to get in the way of important decisions in this day and age. Obama's ratings will continue to drop and more problems arise and as this is his defining Presidential law, he will not be remembered well. This case must go to the Supreme court to finally decide whether or not Obamacare will finally be put down or not. The Act has become a giant failure and in my opinion should be ruled against by the Supreme Court.
ReplyDeleteAs i read this posting and and Kevin's reply. I agree with him that the courts are being biased is very obviously. However I disagree when he says that less and less people will be supportive of obamacare. Whether this passes or not those low income families are still going to be there and be without health insurance. They are going to be the ones to push this through and are going to get people to support for it. The democrats and republicans need to start working together and stop playing games just because they are from different parties. All I'm all this needs to go to the Supreme Court to solve the issue.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Eddie and Kevin. These two political parties are very biased because they are obviously going to vote and rule for what party they stand for. If they are democrats they will vote for it to help the people and if they are republican they will vote against it. Obamacare has been a mess from the beginning in my opinion. From the website not working at first to the continuous problems, it has created a snowball effect to where it stands now. Those low income families will fight until they get their healthcare. In a situation like this, the two parties need to get along and make a decision together. The only way to solve this issue is to send it to the supreme court so they could hopefully get the situation solved.
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