Briefs: King v. Burwell ruling against subsidies would be 'devastating'

Four amicus briefs highlight importance of federal subisides, consequences should they disappear
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The four speakers echoed the same thing: The healthcare reform law is working. The uninsured rate dropped to 12.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. All agreed that, should the Supreme Court side with the plaintiffs, the result would be "devastating."

"It would damage the entire healthcare system, since the markets are integrated. Premiums will rise dramatically everywhere, and ultimately, affect everyone," said Danielle Gray, former assistant to the president and cabinet secretary. Another example of just how the law is working: Premiums aren't skyrocketing the way critics and industry experts had previously predicted.

The industry as a whole has been warned of this potential "death spiral" should the Supreme Court rule in favor of the plaintiffs. Insurers would lose their healthy members and thus be forced to raise prices. Ultimately, insurers would lose a ton of customers, reported Talking Points Memo.  

What's more, should the Supreme Court rule subsidies to be illegal, insurers would lose out on an expected $32 billion in payments, reported the National Journal

Republicans, meanwhile, see the case as a chance to dismantle the ACA, backing the idea that a Democrat-controlled Congress used the subsidies to goad states into creating their own exchanges, according to the Washington Times

Were that the case, the American Cancer Society--who also filed its own amicus brief--told the Washington Times, "we would have objected even more strongly to any legislative provision that used patients' well-being as a bargaining chip to induce states to establish their own exchanges." The American Cancer Society backed the notion that not only would ruling against subsidies put "9.6 million people at risk of losing coverage, it would make them more suspetible to chronic disease." 

For more:
- here's The Hill article
- check out the Talking Points Memo story
- read the National Journal piece
- here's the Washington Times article

Editor's Note: Editorial intern Sean West contributed to this report

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