The Obama administration is about to face another big legal headache in defending PPACA.
The unprecedented suit challenges the administration's decision to delay the ACA's employer mandate and to use Treasury funds that were not appropriated by Congress to pay for $175 billion in subsidies for low-income exchange plan members to help them with out-of-pocket costs. ...
Without those subsidies, which are in addition to the law's premium subsidies, many exchange enrollees likely would not be able to afford health care because of high deductibles and coinsurance. Exchange plans still would be required by the ACA to reduce cost sharing, but doing so would not be financially viable for the insurers, potentially disrupting the exchange market.
The new legal challenge comes as everyone tensely awaits the Supreme Court's decision in King v. Burwell, expected in late June, which could eliminate premium subsidies in up to 37 states that are using the federal insurance exchange. The new case creates the possibility that even if the high court upholds the premium subsidies, the cost-sharing subsidies for people in silver-tier plans with incomes up to 250% of the federal poverty level still could be in peril. ...Source: Business Insurance.
