Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell told a Senate panel Wednesday there is no backup plan to support Obamacare if the Supreme Court strikes down federal subsidies.
“Right now I’m focused on open enrollment,” Burwell told Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Burwell was on Capitol Hill to update lawmakers on Obamacare’s open enrollment period, which ends Feb. 15.
But Hatch said Burwell and HHS also should focus their attention on a forthcoming Supreme Court decision in King v. Burwell, which challenges the law’s use of federal subsidies in as many as 37 states that do not wholly operate their own health insurance exchanges. Arguments in the case are scheduled for March.
Healthcare experts have warned that if the court strikes down the federal subsidies, it would fatally undermine the law and perhaps make it impossible for Obamacare to continue since the majority of states would not be eligible to receive federal subsidies.
Hatch repeatedly asked Burwell about a contingency plan for those who are currently insured in Obamacare and reliant upon federal subsidies.
He said insurance companies “have not been given any guidance” from HHS about what to do in the event the subsidies are struck down by the Supreme Court.
While Burwell acknowledged that the majority of enrollees in the healthcare law rely on federal subsidies, she repeatedly told Hatch that rather than focusing on a backup plan in preparation for the Supreme Court decision, HHS was dedicated to ensuring a smooth open enrollment period, which was considered disastrous in the original launch in October 2013.
“I would suggest the administration ought to get one, just in case,” Hatch said. “It seems to me you’re going to have to have one because the possibility that there will be millions of people who need coverage when this runs out, is important.”
