WASHINGTON (AP) — A split federal appeals court on Tuesday grappled with an issue that is crucial to the success of President Barack Obama’s health care law, debating whether the government can subsidize premiums for people who buy insurance on exchanges run by Washington.

In a blunt assessment of the health overhaul and challengers to the Affordable Care Act, Judge A. Raymond Randolph described the launch of the act as “an unmitigated disaster” while Judge Harry Edwards said opponents of the law are seeking “to destroy the individual mandate and gut the statute.” The mandate is the requirement that nearly everyone have health insurance.