A new report boosts a Supreme Court lawsuit challenging Obamacare subsidies by showing that state health officials were deeply concerned about — and well aware of — the controversial healthcare law’s limits on subsidies in states without their own insurance exchanges.
The report released Thursday by the pro-free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute sought to get documentation related to a letter from the top health officials in seven states, who were concerned about eligibility for the healthcare law’s tax credits.
The high court will rule this summer on King v. Burwell, which focuses on whether the 36 states that use federally-run exchanges are eligible for Obamacare subsidies. A key argument from the case’s plaintiffs is that Congress intended for the subsidies to be a condition of setting up their own insurance exchange, but the law’s supporters said in oral arguments last month that though the law explicitly says subsidies are to be provided where there is an “exchange established by the state,” the broader context of the law shows Congress intended for the subsidies to be available in all states.
The report from Competitive Enterprise Institute, which supports the plaintiffs in the challenge, seeks to address whether the letter from seven states to the administration was authentic.
The 2012 letter was signed by health and insurance officials from Virginia, Maine, New Mexico, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Kentucky. Of those seven, Kentucky and New Mexico set up their own exchanges while the rest use healthcare.gov.
The states asked the Department of Health and Human Services for a legal opinion on whether they needed to set up their own health insurance exchange in order for their residents to get the public money used to help pay for the cost of coverage.
The letter was dismissed by Obamacare supporters as a prank or joke, the report said. Ian Millhiser with left-leaning Center for American Progress believed that it closely resembled a letter the administration had sent to states requesting information on their plans for state exchanges, according to the report.
He added that no state questioned the legality of the tax credits.
However, emails obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Scott Vorse show that the letter was “a carefully crafted and coordinated effort by the states to get detailed information about the exchanges from HHS,” the report said. Vorse cited emails from several officials that asked about the administration’s authority over the tax credits and what they need to do.
