US appeals court deals blow to law

Policyholders will keep getting financial aid

WASHINGTON, July 23, (AP): President Barack Obama’s health care law is snared in another big legal battle after two federal appeals courts issued contradictory rulings on a key financing issue Tuesday.

A divided court panel in Washington called into question the subsidies that help millions of lowand middle-income people pay their premiums, saying financial aid can be paid only in states that have set up their own insurance markets, or exchanges.

About 100 miles (160 km) to the south in Richmond, Virginia, another appeals court panel unanimously came to the opposite conclusion, ruling that the Internal Revenue Service correctly interpreted the will of Congress when it issued regulations allowing consumers in all 50 states to purchase subsidized coverage.

The White House immediately declared that policyholders will keep getting financial aid as the administration sorts out the legal implications.

The court ruling in the nation’s capital fit with Republican attempts to cripple or repeal the landmark law that the president signed in 2010 in a campaign to dramatically reduce the number of Americans who are uninsured because the high cost of coverage. The law also mandated that insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to people who already have medical conditions or drop coverage when a person became ill.

Intrusive

Republicans believe the law is too intrusive into the lives of Americans in that it forces then to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said the adverse decision in Washington would have “no practical impact” on tax credits as the case works its way through the courts.

Both cases reached appeals courts as part of a long-running political and legal campaign by Republicans to overturn Obama’s signature domestic legislation.

In the Washington case, a group of small business owners argued that the law authorizes subsidies only for people who buy insurance through markets established by the states - not by the federal government.

That’s no mere legal distinction, since the federal government is running the markets, or exchanges, in 36 states.

A divided court agreed with that objection, in a 2-1 decision that could mean premium increases for more than half the 8 million Americans who have purchased taxpayer-subsidized private insurance under the law.

For those federal exchange con-