Ellmers Statement on Latest Obamacare Ruling

Press Release

Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02) released the following statement this afternoon following the ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Affordable Care Act does not permit the IRS to distribute premium subsidies in the federal healthcare exchanges:

"Over the last few years, the Obama administration has been forced to deal with the ineffective realities of their signature legislation. This morning's ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court is just the latest blow to the legality and implementation of a law that was doomed to fail from the very beginning. Once again, President Obama's attempt to circumvent the law and implement these federal mandates has been blocked by the realities of our Constitution."

"Americans are struggling to meet the demands and pressure of our still-fragile economy while navigating the new burdens that have been forced upon them by Obamacare. Instead of focusing on patient-centered care and finding ways to cut the real sources of rising costs, this law is only adding to the problem by limiting options, doubling premiums, and expanding the barriers to timely and effective care. All Americans need to take a serious look at this law and the troubling limits it has placed on everything - from efficient care and job creation - to the encroachment of the federal government into the most personal elements of our lives."

"I will continue to fight for real solutions that will bring our health care back to a patient-centered focus and drive down the costs that are adding unnecessary pain to millions of Americans."

This morning, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Affordable Care Act does not permit the IRS to distribute premium subsidies in the federal healthcare exchanges. As CNBC noted, this means that government subsidies worth billions of dollars in taxpayer funds are unconstitutional and strike at the heart of the law's original intentions:

If upheld, the ruling could lead many, if not most of those subsidized customers to abandon their health plans sold on HealthCare.gov because they no longer would find them affordable without the often-lucrative tax credits. And if that coverage then is not affordable for them as defined by the Obamacare law, those people will no longer be bound by the law's mandate to have health insurance by this year or pay a fine next year.

If there were to be a large exodus of subsidized customers from the HealthCare.gov plans, it would in turn likely lead to much higher premium rates for non-subsidized people who would remain in those plans, who are apt as a group to be in worse health than all original enrollees.

The ruling also threatens, in the same 36 states, to gut the Obamacare rule starting next year that all employers with 50 or more full-time workers offer affordable insurance to them or face fines. That's because the rule only kicks in if one of such an employers' workers buy subsidized covered on HealthCare.gov.

The decision by the three-judge panel in DC federal appeals circuit is the most serious challenge to the underpinnings of the Affordable Care Act since a challenge to that law's constitutionality was heard by US Supreme Court. The high court in 2012 upheld most of the ACA, including the mandate that most people must get insurance or pay a fine.

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