There’s no backup plan should the Supreme Court strike down a major part of the Affordable Care Act this year, a top Obama administration official wrote to Congress Tuesday.
“We know of no administrative actions that could, and therefore we have no plans that would, undo the massive damage to our health care system that would be caused by an adverse decision,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell wrote to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Up until now, Burwell had refused to say whether the administration had a contingency plan if the court blocks the law’s health insurance subsidies from the majority of states using healthcare.gov instead of setting up their own insurance marketplaces.
The case at hand is King v. Burwell, which challenges the administration’s legal authority to award the subsidies through the federal-run marketplaces. The plaintiffs say that action contradicts the text of the 2010 health care law. The court is scheduled to hear the case on March 4.
But Burwell also wrote that she’s “confident” the administration will prevail in its argument that the subsidies are legal. “The text and structure of the Affordable Care Act demonstrates that citizens in every state would be entitled to tax credits,” she wrote.
Hatch, who had asked Burwell about a contingency plan, said her response “confirms how the misguided law is unworkable for the American people.”
“I’m committed to working with my Republican colleagues on how Congress can respond to help those hurt by Obamacare’s broken promises, including those in a post-King v. Burwell world,” Hatch said in a statement.
