The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in the case that could completely gut Obamacare and a group of Republican senators have come up with what they call a “bridge away from Obamacare” if the court rules in their favor this summer.
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post Sunday outlining the Republican plan to fix Obamacare if the Supreme Court rules in their favor on King v. Burwell.
King v. Burwell charges that the billions of dollars in Obamacare subsidies can only be offered in health care exchanges run by states. This argument comes from the specific language of the law, which states that subsidies, offered in the form of tax credits, will be offered in exchanges “established by the state.”
Opponents believe that this nullifies the subsidies offered since the program began in the states that did not set up their own exchanges. Since 36 states did not set up their own exchanges, this could be crippling to the law as a whole.
Here’s the senators’ plan if that should happen:
Most of these people have gone through the wringer to get this insurance. Millions lost their previous health-care plans because those plans didn’t meet Obamacare’s requirements; others no longer have access to the doctors or hospitals they were accustomed to; millions spent weeks trying to purchase insurance on the flawed Web site rolled out by the administration; and many have seen their out-of-pocket health costs or premiums skyrocket.
People do not deserve further disruption from this law.
Second, we will give states the freedom and flexibility to create better, more competitive health insurance markets offering more options and different choices. Republicans understand that what works in Utah is different from what works in Tennessee or Wyoming. We want to give states the time and flexibility to design health-care systems that work for them, not for the bureaucrats in Washington.”
The senators pointed out that King v. Burwell would not impact states that have already set up their own exchanges. However, the senators said, there seems to be consensus that if this goes their way that these states would be afforded the opportunity to design a better system as well.
