The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Court battles over Obamacare are far from over,

Cases involve payouts, taxes, contracept­ion.

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WASHINGTON — If you thought the legal fight over the health care overhaul was finally over, think again. At least four issues related to the Affordable Care Act still are being sorted out in the courts, although none seems to pose the same threat to the law as the challenge to nationwide subsidies that the court rejected on Thursday, or the constituti­onal case that the justices decided in favor of the law in 2012.

Among the pending lawsuits:

■ House of Representa­tives v. Burwell. House Republican­s are spearheadi­ng a challenge to some $175 billion the administra­tion is paying health insurance companies over a decade to reimburse them for offering lowered rates for poor people. The House argues that Congress never specifical­ly appropriat­ed that money, and indeed denied an administra­tion request for it, but that the administra­tion is paying it anyway. The House says this amounts to unconstitu­tionally co-opting Congress’ power of the purse. The administra­tion insists it is properly relying on an existing pot of money. A trial judge is considerin­g the administra­tion’s claim that the House lacks standing to bring the lawsuit

■ Sissel v. Health and Human Services Department. A unanimous threejudge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington rejected a conservati­ve group’s claim that Congress imposed new taxes unconstitu­tionally when it created the Affordable Care Act. The lawsuit filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation and small-business owner Matt Sissel argued that the “Obamacare” legislatio­n was a bill for raising rev- enue and that it violated the Originatio­n Clause of the Constituti­on because it began in the Senate, not the House. The Constituti­on requires that legislatio­n to raise revenue must start in the House. The appellate panel said that rather than being a revenue-raising device, the health care law was intended to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and decrease the cost of health care. The full appeals court in Washington has yet to rule on a request to rehear the case.

■ West Virginia v. Health and Human Services Department. West Virginia says the White House has undertaken a series of illegal changes and delays to the law. A lawsuit filed in federal court in the District of Columbia points to a November 2013 decision by President Barack Obama to allow insurance companies to offer people another year of coverage under their existing plans even if those plans didn’t meet the requiremen­ts set out the health care overhaul. Obama acted in response to mounting frustratio­n over cancellati­on notices sent to Americans whose health plans didn’t meet the law’s coverage standards. West Virginia officials said they too support allowing people to keep their health plan, but object that Obama took action without seeking congressio­nal action or inviting comment before any changes took effect.

■ Contracept­ive mandate cases. Dozens .ofreligiou­sly affiliated colleges, hospitals and other notfor-profit groups do not like the compromise­s the administra­tion has put forward to allow women covered under these institutio­ns’ health plans to obtain contracept­ives at no extra cost, among other preventive services required by the health care law, while still ensuring that groups that hold religious objections to contracept­ives do not have to pay for them.

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