The Case That Could Topple Obamacare
By Pema Levy / December 17 2013 3:05 PM
Obamacare may have its problems, including more bugs than you can find in the cornfields of Nebraska, but its legal worries were meant to end after the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate, the heart of the Affordable Care Act.
Now, as the technologists charged with making healthcare.gov work report progress, lawyers are re-entering the fray. A little-heard of challenge currently making its way through the court system may represent opponents’ last best hope of, as they are fond of saying, driving a stake through the heart of the law.
It all started in 2011, when Jonathan H. Adler, a conservative law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, shot an email to his friend Michael Cannon, a health policy expert at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Adler thought he had spotted an error in Obamacare that could unravel a significant portion of the law.
At issue are the federal subsidies for individuals buying insurance in their state’s health care exchanges. The law stipulates that those subsidies should be allotted for plans purchased “through an Exchange established by the State under Section 1311” (italics added), a reference to the section of the law that establishes state-run exchanges.
What is the problem with universal healthcare? Why do libertarians insist on being exploited by the medical industry, from the schools to the insurance companies? Is it “Because Obama”?
The medical industry is rotten to the core here in the US. Something needs to be done. It’s not as if Republicans haven’t proposed schemes similar to ACA before.
It must really be “Because Obama”.
And don’t get me started on global warming. Assume the deniers are correct, and there is no such thing as global warming. Would it be that bad for us to have created a cleaner, more sustainable existence anyway? My 2nd favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt, must be spinning in his grave. I don’t understand the point of arguing.
Petulant children.
Wishing and hoping.