Source: http://comedyce.com/king-v-burwell-heres-what-the-supreme-court-said/
Timestamp: 2020-08-08 23:35:41
Document Index: 753861634

Matched Legal Cases: ['§300', '§5000', '§36', '§18031', '§36', '§18031', '§36', '§1', '§155', '§18031', '§18031', '§18041']

King v. Burwell – here’s what the Supreme Court said
By Eric Johnson on	 June 25, 2015 Blog
Get the decision straight from the horse’s mouth. Here’s the executive summary of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the King v. Burwell case along with an excerpt from Scalia’s dissent.
As everyone knows by now, the Supreme Court has released its long-awaited decision in the King v. Burwell case, deciding that the premium tax credits to help families with incomes up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level pay for health insurance are legal in all states – those that developed their own exchange and those that opted instead to use the Federally Facilitated Marketplace, Healthcare.gov.
Every news organization, understandably, is offering extensive coverage of this case, so I asked myself what I could add to the conversation. The answer is probably not much – there are a ton of opinions from both sides and extensive analysis about what this means for insurance companies, hospitals, the millions of Americans receiving government subsidies, and the legacy of the Affordable Care Act. I’ll let you form your own opinion about the decision, but what I thought would be helpful is to tell you what the decision is. And the best way to do that, in my opinion, is to actually let you read it – not the whole decision, but the syllabus that accompanies it to provide people with a brief synopsis of the case and the finding of the Court.
I’m a big proponent of going straight to the source. Too many insurance advisors, in my opinion, get their information from TV or the newspaper, and the media almost always gets something wrong. So here’s the syllabus, which summarizes Justice Roberts’ majority opinion, followed by an excerpt from the opinion itself, an excerpt from Justice Scalia’s dissent, and an excerpt from President Obama’s press conference following the ruling.
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued sims 4 dogs and cats for free. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act grew out of a long history of failed health insurance reform. In the 1990s, several States sought to expand access to coverage by imposing a pair of insurance market regulations—a “guaranteed issue” requirement, which bars insurers from denying coverage to any person because of his health, and a “community rating” requirement, which bars insurers from charging a person higher premiums for the same reason. The reforms achieved the goal of expanding access to coverage, but they also encouraged people to wait until they got sick to buy insurance. The result was an economic “death spiral”: premiums rose, the number of people buying insurance declined, and insurers left the market entirely. In 2006, however, Massachusetts discovered a way to make the guaranteed issue and community rating requirements work—by requiring individuals to buy insurance and by providing tax credits to certain individuals to make insurance more affordable music tracks for free. The combination of these three reforms—insurance market regulations, a coverage mandate, and tax credits—enabled Massachusetts to drastically reduce its uninsured rate.
The Affordable Care Act adopts a version of the three key reforms that made the Massachusetts system successful. First, the Act adopts the guaranteed issue and community rating requirements. U. S. C. §§300gg, 300gg–1. Second, the Act generally requires individuals to maintain health insurance coverage or make a payment to the IRS, unless the cost of buying insurance would exceed eight percent of that individual’s income. 26 U. S. C. §5000A. And third, the Act seeks to make insurance more affordable by giving refundable tax credits to individuals with household incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line. §36B.
In addition to those three reforms, the Act requires the creation of an “Exchange” in each State—basically, a marketplace that allows people to compare and purchase insurance plans. The Act gives each State the opportunity to establish its own Exchange, but provides that the Federal Government will establish “such Exchange” if the State does not. 42 U. S. C. §§18031, 18041. Relatedly, the Act provides that tax credits “shall be allowed” for any “applicable taxpayer,”26 U. S. C. §36B(a), but only if the taxpayer has enrolled in an insurance plan through “an Exchange established by the State under [42 U herunterladen. S. C. §18031],” §§36B(b)–(c). An IRS regulation interprets that language as making tax credits available on “an Exchange,” 26 CFR§1.36B–2, “regardless of whether the Exchange is established and operated by a State . . . or by HHS,” 45 CFR §155.20.
Petitioners are four individuals who live in Virginia, which has a Federal Exchange. They do not wish to purchase health insurance. In their view, Virginia’s Exchange does not qualify as “an Exchange established by the State under [42 U. S. C. §18031],” so they should not receive any tax credits. That would make the cost of buying insurance more than eight percent of petitioners’ income, exempting them from the Act’s coverage requirement. As a result of the IRS Rule, however, petitioners would receive tax credits. That would make the cost of buying insurance less than eight percent of their income, which would subject them to the Act’s coverage requirement.
Petitioners challenged the IRS Rule in Federal District Court. The District Court dismissed the suit, holding that the Act unambiguously made tax credits available to individuals enrolled through a Federal Exchange. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed. The Fourth Circuit viewed the Act as ambiguous, and deferred to the IRS’s interpretation under Chevron U facebook installieren kostenlos downloaden. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837.
(a) When analyzing an agency’s interpretation of a statute, this Court often applies the two-step framework announced in Chevron, 467 U. S. 837. But Chevron does not provide the appropriate framework here. The tax credits are one of the Act’s key reforms and whether they are available on Federal Exchanges is a question of deep “economic and political significance”; had Congress wished to assign that question to an agency, it surely would have done so expressly. And it is especially unlikely that Congress would have delegated this decision to the IRS, which has no expertise in crafting health insurance policy of this sort.
It is instead the Court’s task to determine the correct reading of Section 36B. If the statutory language is plain, the Court must enforce it according to its terms. But oftentimes the meaning—or ambiguity—of certain words or phrases may only become evident when placed in context. So when deciding whether the language is plain, the Court must read the words “in their context and with a view to their place in the overall statutory scheme.” FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U. S. 120, 133. Pp. 7–9.
(b) When read in context, the phrase “an Exchange established by the State under [42 U herunterladen. S. C. §18031]” is properly viewed as ambiguous. The phrase may be limited in its reach to State Exchanges. But it could also refer to all Exchanges—both State and Federal—for purposes of the tax credits. If a State chooses not to follow the directive in Section 18031 to establish an Exchange, the Act tells the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish “such Exchange.” §18041. And by using the words “such Exchange,” the Act indicates that State and Federal Exchanges should be the same. But State and Federal Exchanges would differ in a fundamental way if tax credits were available only on State Exchanges—one type of Exchange would help make insurance more affordable by providing billions of dollars to the States’ citizens; the other type of Exchange would not. Several other provisions in the Act—e.g., Section 18031(i)(3)(B)’s requirement that all Exchanges create outreach programs to “distribute fair and impartial information concerning . . . the availability of premium tax credits under section 36B”—would make little sense if tax credits were not available on Federal Exchanges.
The argument that the phrase “established by the State” would be superfluous if Congress meant to extend tax credits to both State and Federal Exchanges is unpersuasive. This Court’s “preference for avoiding surplusage constructions is not absolute.” Lamie v. United States Trustee, 540 U. S. 526, 536. And rigorous application of that canon does not seem a particularly useful guide to a fair construction of the Affordable Care Act, which contains more than a few examples of in artful drafting. The Court nevertheless must do its best, “bearing in mind the ‘fundamental canon of statutory construction that the words of a statute must be read in their context and with a view to their place in the overall statutory scheme.’ ” Utility Air Regulatory Group v tor browser for free. EPA, 573 U. S., Pp. 9–15.
Here, the statutory scheme compels the Court to reject petitioners’ interpretation because it would destabilize the individual insurance market in any State with a Federal Exchange, and likely create the very “death spirals” that Congress designed the Act to avoid. Under petitioners’ reading, the Act would not work in a State with a Federal Exchange. As they see it, one of the Act’s three major reforms—the tax credits—would not apply. And a second major reform—the coverage requirement—would not apply in a meaningful way, because so many individuals would be exempt from the requirement without the tax credits. If petitioners are right, therefore, only one of the Act’s three major reforms would apply in States with a Federal Exchange.
The combination of no tax credits and an ineffective coverage requirement could well push a State’s individual insurance market into a death spiral. It is implausible that Congress meant the Act to operate in this manner. Congress made the guaranteed issue and community rating requirements applicable in every State in the Nation, but those requirements only work when combined with the coverage requirement and tax credits. It thus stands to reason that Congress meant for those provisions to apply in every State as well. Pp. 15–19.
(d) The structure of Section 36B itself also suggests that tax credits are not limited to State Exchanges audio stories for free. Together, Section 36B(a), which allows tax credits for any “applicable taxpayer,” and Section36B(c)(1), which defines that term as someone with a household income between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line, appear to make anyone in the specified income range eligible for a tax credit. According to petitioners, however, those provisions are an empty promise in States with a Federal Exchange. In their view, an applicable taxpayer in such a State would be eligible for a tax credit, but the amount of that tax credit would always be zero because of two provisions buried deep within the Tax Code. That argument fails because Congress “does not alter the fundamental details of a regulatory scheme in vague terms or ancillary provisions.” Whitman v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 531 U. S. 457. Pp. 19–20.
Excerpt from the Opinion of the Court (Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan)
In a democracy, the power to make the law rests with those chosen by the people strategie pc spiele kostenlos downloaden. Our role is more confined—“to say what the law is.” Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177 (1803). That is easier in some cases than in others. But in every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done. A fair reading of legislation demands a fair understanding of thel egislative plan. Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter. Section 36B can fairly be read consistent with what we see as Congress’s plan, and that is the reading we adopt. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is Affirmed.
Excerpt from the Dissent (Justice Scalia, joined by Justices Thomas and Alito)
Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is “established by the State.” It is hard to come up with a clearer way to limit tax credits to state Exchanges than to use the words “established by the State.” And it is hard to come up with a reason to include the words “by the State” other than the purpose of limiting credits to state Exchanges app downloaden ohne wlan. “[T]he plain, obvious, and rational meaning of a statute is always to be preferred to any curious, narrow, hidden sense that nothing but the exigency of a hard case and the ingenuity and study of an acute and powerful intellect would discover.” Lynch v. Alworth-Stephens Co., 267 U. S. 364, 370 (1925) (internal quotation marks omitted). Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved.
Excerpt from President Obama’s Press Conference
“Today is a victory for hardworking Americans all across this country whose lives will continue to become more secure in a changing economy because of this law…we’ve got more work to do. But what we’re not going to do is unravel what has now been woven into the fabric of America.”
As I said at the beginning, there are a ton of opinions from both sides about this case, so I’ll resist the temptation to share mine here. What I will say is that it’s good to finally have a decision – it allows people to move on, to make adjustments, and to get out of “wait and see” mode. I hope that’s what we can do as an industry and as a country. Yes, the health care law will continue to be a big issue moving forward, especially in the presidential election. And it’s likely to continue to change no matter who’s in office. But for the foreseeable future, the subsidies will continue. The Court decided that Congress wanted to insure more Americans, and that could only be done with the combination of guaranteed issue & community rating, an enforceable individual mandate, and subsidies in all states mixcloud dateienen. The three do work together, and we’ve already seen millions of Americans gain health insurance as a result of this law. With today’s ruling, and the continued assistance from the broker community, that trend will continue.
Tags: Affordable Care ActLawsuitsPremium Tax Credit
RT @KaiserFamFound: While some of the same prescription drugs with the highest spending appear across payers, the variation in top 10 ranki… @ComedyCE 1 year ago
RT @larry_levitt: Individual market insurers had their most profitable year ever in 2018 under the ACA. So profitable, in fact, that they e… @ComedyCE 1 year ago
RT @ASlavitt: BREAKING: Trump Administration lays out changes to ACA which would cut coverage for ~2 million Americans, significantly incre… @ComedyCE 2 years ago
RT @larry_levitt: This is the regulation that will set the rules for the ACA marketplace in 2020. It was expected out weeks ago. It could n… @ComedyCE 2 years ago
RT @larry_levitt: The Trump administration has issued a new proposed ACA marketplace regulation that signals potential changes that could f… @ComedyCE 2 years ago
RT @CKollerMilbank: Consumer captures the secret of health care financing: “I guess that the way things work nowadays. You ask for the moon… @ComedyCE 2 years ago
RT @larry_levitt: California and other Democratic states are appealing a decision that the ACA in its entirety is unconstitutional. The Tr… @ComedyCE 2 years ago
RT @mjkeegan1127: Sixteen state AGs appeal federal judge’s controversial December ruling that #ACA is unconstitutional, kicking off the nex… @ComedyCE 2 years ago
RT @tricia_neuman: The ACA included many, many changes to Medicare, which covers 60 million people. Reverting to pre-ACA law could be quite… @ComedyCE 2 years ago
@larry_levitt No it's not. They could simply vote to reinstate the mandate penalty so that it would be a tax again… https://t.co/KrvjVxp0wY @ComedyCE 2 years ago
Big news. https://t.co/7hfBxe7pm6 @ComedyCE 2 years ago
Great read from @Q4intelligence. https://t.co/NgY4tBhWtM @ComedyCE 2 years ago