Supreme Court requires government to pay health insurers under ACA
Supreme Court requires government to pay health insurers under Affordable Care Act
Obamacare was an obvious train-wreck, but it went forward and now we're beginning to count the bodies. If Chief Justice Roberts wasn't such an ass-hat in declaring the penalties as a "tax", they wouldn't have been able to dig such a deep hole.
Quote:
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Congress cheated health insurance companies by reneging on a $12 billion promise made under the Affordable Care Act.
The decision represents the high court's views on Congress' power of the purse: Lawmakers cannot promise funding in legislation and then disavow that pledge.
Because insurers took considerable risks when they agreed to participate in Obamacare's marketplaces, the original 2010 law included limits on the amount of losses they could incur. But when the bill came due to cover some of those losses several years later, the government refused to pay.
Paul Clement, the former U.S. solicitor general representing the insurers, called it a $12-billion "bait and switch." But a federal appeals court ruled that Congress had the right not to appropriate the funds.
During oral argument in December, Chief Justice John Roberts said the insurers "would not have participated in the risk corridor program but for the government's promise to pay."
Added Associate Justice Stephen Breyer: "Why does the government not have to pay its contracts, just like anybody else?"
Since its passage, the Affordable Care Act championed by President Barack Obama has been the subject of countless legal challenges. The Supreme Court twice has upheld it by narrow votes and will hear a third major challenge next fall.
