The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of health insurance companies Monday, saying they were owed reimbursements under Obamacare. The amount may be as high as $12 billion.
Under a program called “risk corridors,” insurers that made a profit from the Obamacare exchanges in the first three years were required to provide some of their earnings to insurers that lost money. However, the losses exceeded profits by $12 billion, and under the law, the federal government was supposed to make up that difference.
Critics of Obamacare dubbed the risk corridors a “bailout,” and in response, Republicans in Congress passed annual appropriation bills containing riders that forbade the federal government from paying insurers under the risk corridors.
The majority on the court ruled that Congress did not “repeal the [risk corridor] obligation through its appropriations riders.” That will likely result in insurers receiving payouts from the Treasury.
Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter in the case, said that insurers were not entitled to bring the lawsuit under federal law.
